A cold hell
by Keijiro Mishima
Summary: 20 years ago, the frontier project was destroyed. Five years later, another project was started to combat the Sin-virus which made the Akrid stronger. This story is now a minor side-project and I'll update occasionally.
1. Kraken

"Where the hell did it go?" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I looked to my right at my scout. She sat miles away with an advanced binocular set searching the area for the Akrid.

"I don't know it went back in the snow and it's gone." Her soft pleasant voice didn't help the situation.

"It's not gone because I can still hear it." I raised my custom plasma rifle and spun around looking for any sign of its position.

Humans and Akrid inhabited E.D.N III. Unfortunately, the humans weren't as united as we need to be. The humans divided themselves into two major groups NEVEC and snow pirates. NEVEC was the giant company attempting to colonize the planet, the snow pirates were basically people that lost faith in NEVEC and decided to survive on their own, or former NEVEC employees that rebelled against the company.

Me, I'm a snow pirate in a sense. Well, more like a snow hunter, the team and me go out and hunt Akrid or fight NEVEC or other pirates for a living. Occasionally we'd get offers from civilian settlements to exterminate Akrid or get rid of NEVEC/snow pirates. This time we were hunting a giant worm Akrid dubbed the "Kraken" for some reason. Our only source of information on it was a psyched out snow pirate that had a heart attack in the middle of the questioning.

"I see something, turn around." I turned around and saw the snow flying into the air as this giant alien came towards me.

I reached in my coat and grabbed a sensor mine and dropped it on the ground before running. Turning directly around, I ran at full speed hoping my plan would work. It was a simple plan fit for a not-so-simple Akrid.

The cold breeze stung my face and the snow didn't make running any easier. I've been doing this for as long as I could remember so I ran like an athlete and ignored the pain easily. The mine I dropped was set to explode as soon as it was moved and the Akrid pushed it out of the way.

The force of the explosion flipped me over and made a cloud of snow and smoke rise into the air. I rolled through the air but stood up quickly raising my rifle. The stench of burning Akrid flesh plagued the air but it was a stench of success. At the first glimpse of the giant worm I gripped the gun and pulled the trigger.

"Good move Riax, the Kraken's outer shell is gone on its head. You know what to do know."

That's Violet, my scout, medic, cook, financial adviser, and any other important job that doesn't involve holding a gun herself. While on missions she sits back and watches for any Akrid that I don't see.

"Sure, whatever." It's not that I don't give her credit for what she does it's just that she makes what I do sound so easy. Yes, aiming for the head is easy. No, trying to avoid the organic missiles this thing launches from its mouth isn't easy.

The Akrid roared blowing away the cloud exposing its long worm-like body. I noticed the thermal energy pouches on its side and chose for those to be my next target. The less thermal energy within a large Akrids body, the less it moves and the easier it dies.

I ran back towards the Kraken shooting down the missiles it spit out. I pulled out a grenade and threw it like a true baseball pitcher. As planned the grenade detonated directly on contact with the Akrids thermal energy pouch. The red warm liquid poured out along with the green blood of the Akrid.

I rushed towards the bile of liquid and tossed a grenade into the sky. The Akrid swayed from side to side in pain and unknowingly swallowed a grenade. Knowing the grenade would explode soon I quickly did what I had to do.

I reached in my coat and pulled out a canister with a red light on it. At the tip of the canister was a tube and I lowered the tube into the thermal energy. The thermal energy was sucked into the canister and the red light began flashing.

'Remember to ask Trio how these things work again.' I thought to myself as the Akrid began to glow red.

"You…might want to get away from that. It's going to turn out pretty nasty." Violet said reminding me about the grenade in the belly of the beast.

I looked up to see the Akrid's leather, green skin turn a bright reddish-orange. I already felt the heat from the grenade outside of its stomach and wondered how much pain it was in. Once the canisters light started to flash green I stood up and threw my rifle around my shoulder, running for my life.

"Thanks for the reminder, never mind that the last time you waited to tell me something was about to explode I was inside a nuclear enhanced thermal energy plant." That wasn't the best time in my life, it was also the first and last time you'd see NEVEC soldiers, snow pirates, and Akrid running next to each other for a common goal. Trying not to get caught in the raging inferno behind them.

Once again I was lifted from the ground and tossed through the air but this time I flew for a little while. That's the power of a solid pyro grenade, developed to explode and destroy all solid objects. Including the bowels of giant Akrid. The Kraken retreated into the snow and the ground vibrated as it retreated.

I landed in the snow and laid there in a weird daze. My mind wandered for a second until I heard an engine growing closer in the distance. I struggled to get out of the snow before I froze and died.

"Hey Riax, the snow is soft but it's not the best place to take a nap." Violet said stopping next to me. She looked down and visually checked for injuries.

I was strangely dressed and had an even stranger origin that I didn't know about. But she knew more about my appearance than my history. I wore the average heat suit, the tight clothing with blue glowing lines. Every time I put on the suits the lines turned red which most people thought was just a customization.

I wore a long black coat that went down below my knees. And black pants that went along with the rest of the outfit. I never really cared for my hair much but it was black with unusual natural red highlights.

"He's going to freeze." Violet said to herself.

She was dressed in the average snow pirate outfit. The sweater with fur over the body suit and the normal blue pants. Her long brown hair was usually tied behind her so it didn't get in her light blue eyes.

"I just need to rest, you get a bike while I have to run around everywhere."

"That's because you're the one doing the work. You need the exercise."

We heard a low booming noise in the distance and looked over towards one of the mountains. It was a mini-trailer designed to give a team a portable home until they returned to home base. It rolled up directly in front of us and stopped

There was a slight amount of static before the speakers played Trio's annoying voice.

"All aboard Trio's Save Your Ass Express."

"Shut up" We both said and heard Trio laughing inside. The front panels slid open exposing our mechanic and pilot.

When out on missions we took a walker VS. A walker VS is basically a mobile base that comes equipped with VS and thermal energy radar. It also had a minor set of defenses but that wouldn't protect us from anything.

"You're too young for this kind of work." Violet said climbing off of the bike. She looked down and began walking toward the walker.

"You always say that after every big mission." I say that also but I knew she was right. Even though I'm stronger, faster, more durable, and an overall soldier I was only fifteen. "You're only older than me by two years."

"I know but at fifteen you shouldn't be hunting Akrid and fighting NEVEC soldiers."

"You're acting like you're worried." What I didn't know was that she was and she was about to make sure I knew.

"That's because I am, the only reason why I'm out here is because they have you do the field work and I just stand back and watch." I wonder why she won't look at me when she's talking about this.

Me, Violet, and Trio are a three-man team developed by the higher-ups. We work for a organization that accepts the missions and distributes them to teams depending on their skill and experience. Our team is the youngest and strangely the fifth best. That was actually very good when you're in competition with at least a hundred other teams.

"E.D.N III is my home, you were born on a colony space station. Me, I've felt the stinging cold since birth."

"But don't you think it's weird that you were raised killing Akrid by William while he barely let his own son outside."

I wasn't ready to give in but I knew she was right. William Vermilion, leader of the Vermilion hunters, raised me and taught me how to shoot a gun. He says that my parents put me in his care before leading a rebel attack against NEVEC and dying in the fight. William also has a son, Hunter and he was treated as the king of the Vermilion hunters. It was kind of funny how the Vermilion hunters had a useless, royal member named Hunter.

Everywhere Hunter went, William forced the rest of us to give him royal treatment. It got to the point where William even forced the best pirates into taking Hunter as an apprentice.

"So what, William spoils his little brat of a son and gave him everything he ever wanted, but look what he became." She already knew what I was going to say.

"A spoiled son of a bitch."

"Can you two hurry up, there's a large amount of Akrid heading this way." Trio reminded us. I turned around and saw the army of Akrid that spotted the ground like bacteria.

Violet and me ran onto the walker so we'd leave before the Akrid arrived. To our right was a door that leads to the living quarters. To the left leads to the bridge and Trio and in front of us lead to the equipment closet.

We turned left and walked into the bridge standing on either side of Trio's chair. In front of him was this large computer terminal for piloting and multiple images would appear on the mini-map.

"Yo, Trio whatcha doing." I said leaning over his chair and using his head as an armrest. He grumbled slightly and I couldn't hear exactly what he said but the point was to get on his nerves.

"What did you say, I was too high up too hear." This was actually one of my favorite cracks at Trio. It angered him to no ends because he was at least six inches shorter than Violet. And I was two inches taller than her. Sadly, Trio decided on his name because he was the oldest out of us.

"What do you want Riax." He shouted in my face looking up quickly. He wore these mechanical visors that helped him in some way. His blond hair was tied back into a long braid behind him. Another trait of his was the coat he wore never exposed anything below the bridge of his nose. The rest of his face was a mystery to me.

"Explain to me how this thingy works again." I said tossing the canister on his lap. The light stopped flashing green a while ago and now it was a solid green.

"This is a T-Eng condenser, the tube at the top sucks in the T-Eng and when it's full the condenser obviously condenses the energy into this." Trio said flipping over the condenser with his gloved hands. He twisted the tube at the top and steam spewed out.

A "Thermal Ruby" fell out of the condenser and into his hands. The condenser took the incredible heat that was released and turned it into more energy. One Thermal Ruby could power the basic VS constantly for twelve hours.

"Guys, we just got a call from William. He says we need to hurry back." Violet said. I got fairly ticked off, he's always calling us for emergencies when it's something stupid.

"Why don't you tell him to fuck off? I just wasted an Akrid and deserve a break." He acts like he owns us but doesn't do any hunting his self. Hunter has only hunted one Akrid and he had me and other elites following behind.

"If I said that, we'd lose all of our missions for a while again. And you get annoying when you're bored."

"Do not." I argued. The beeping noise behind me caught my attention and I turned around two see three red markers coming closer to the walker on the map.

"Apparently three snow pirates spotted us and are coming over for a fight. All three are basic VS's so you can take him out quickly." Trio announced flipping a few switches.

The temperature in the room decreased as Trio opened the hangar. He raised one hand and waved signaling for me to leave and I left. I walked into the equipment room and saw the guns sprawled across the room lazily. I picked up a basic rocket launcher and put it under my left arm. At the end of the room was another door that led to the VS hangar.

Crossing into the next room I felt a sense of pride to see my personal VS waiting for me. It was the kind of VS that came with the plasma blade on its left arm but mine was customized.

It was a black-colored VS with two chain guns on each shoulder. The eight-barreled chain guns had a ninth-center barrel for a grenade launcher. The blades were replaced with plasma chainsaws that were on top of the hands so I could still use the shotgun and plasma rifle in the VS's hands. That gave me a total of six guns and two melee weapons.

"This is the only good thing you've done for me William. You bought me a big weapon to make up for all the other presents you missed." Strangely Hunter and me were born on the same day, just on two different years. Hunter was older by about three years making him eighteen, yet William still spoiled his son and left me with all of the training.

I walked to the front of my VS and stood in front of it. For some reason it only activated for me and it was stranger once you got inside. But for me to activate the VS I did something that made most people wonder how advanced it was.

"Seraph, you're linked into the walkers mainframe so you already now we have some snow pirates heading this way." I had to talk to my VS. For some reason this VS was built with a personality. No matter how much I ask Trio to work on it he tells me "it's to complex". It's just a VS with some perks nothing to different.

"Do you plan on sparing their lives, it's not their fault you just happened to be in a bad mood." The male machine voice responded while opening. I simply jumped in and did the normal for any VS.

"Nah, but it's their fault for being here when I'm pissed off."

"That doesn't seem fair to me."

"You're a machine all I ask is that you shoot when I say shoot and move when I want to move." My body felt a quick jolt as Seraph linked with my conscious. I opened my eyes as the hatch closed and my body moved the VS on instinct.

After using Seraph multiple times, I've learned not to question how I pilot it. Every time I do it usually ends with me sending the machine in overdrive and flying into an Akrid hive.

"You OK Riax, they're getting closer and I don't expect them to be a problem. Each VS has one basic chain gun so don't worry about heavy artillery." Trio said in the headset. I raised one finger to the headset and pressed it close to my ear so I can hear correctly.

"Why can't you just shoot them with the walkers cannons."

"Because I haven't seen you in action for a while and I miss the show."

There was a loud scream over the headset as Violet punched Trio. I laughed as Trio called her a 'protective psycho' and was punched again. Violet stole the headset and began telling actual information.

"You don't have long before the Akrid show up so make this quick and safe."

I shot out of the hangar shaking the entire walker. They watched as my VS boosted across the frozen desert towards the others. The snow popped up around Seraph as every shot they fired missed completely.

"Seraph activate right hand plasma rifle." I said. The activation code appeared at the bottom right of the screen and stated the weapon was active. I simply reached for the rifle and pulled it out aiming directly for the cockpit of an enemy VS.

The rifle fired sending out a red energy beam towards the VS. Two of them moved out of the way but one didn't avoid in time. I realized I was still in shape when the beam pierced directly through the snow pirate inside. The VS exploded and I charged directly into the flames at high speed. I activated the boosters and launched upwards into the air.

They were apparently inexperienced VS pilots. If they weren't they would've used radar to track me into the air and fire but they didn't. Like idiots they wasted their ammo firing into the fire and unknowingly shot each other. The VS one the west side exploded as the one on the east side killed his partner. I landed where his partner used to be and waited for the flames to blow away.

"Hell is a cold place, isn't it." I said mocking the other VS pilot.

The flames blew away and I laughed guessing what he was thinking. He saw a custom VS standing in the debris of his former comrade. I saw his mech twitch as he tried to start up the chain gun before I moved.

I dashed forward and before he even fired one shot used the energy blade to saw right through him. His VS fell and I saw the crimson skull on the back, the symbol of the Crimson Pirates. I started back towards the walker until a strange sensation came to me. It felt as if a primal killing intent worked its way into my mind.

I felt it before I knew it was there. The strange sensation alerted me to what was coming. I felt it, heard it, a strange sixth sense detected it. I had an urge but I suppressed it, whatever this thing I felt was. It has to die.

"Riax, there is a large Akrid underground. It's looks like Kraken decided to show it's full body. It's massive." Violet shouted in the headset. I spun around in the VS and saw what put that snow pirate into shock.

The snow shifted as six worm like tentacles extended out of the ground. The one I attacked before was in the center and was still wounded. All of them swirled and tilted in the air before the head of the beast erupted from the snow. The Kraken resembled an enormous squid… I think I should have known that judging by the name.

"Aim for the…"Violet spoke until I interrupted.

"The T-Eng pouches, I know. Every Akrid has an Achilles heel and this one is no different."

I spun around the VS and pulled out my plasma rifle aiming directly at the already wounded head. Upon wasting about thirty shots the wounded one finally fell to the ground and degraded into a shell.

"One head down, five to go." Trio said over the headset. Knowing a rifle won't help me. I switched over to one of the heavy weapons.

"Seraph activate left shoulder chain gun."

"Die you piece of shit." I shouted. For some reason it felt as if all the Akrid deserved to die.

"Riax, you okay man." Trio said. The worried tone in his voice didn't faze me in the least.

"They are all worthless filth that deserve to be eradicated." The Kraken began to seem more and more like prey than a predator of the snow.

"R..Riax, what's wrong with you." Violet's worried voice brought me back to reality slightly. I realized what I was saying and stopped but the Akrid still looked like prey.

I dashed back wards and raised the chain gun killing off another head. The gun stopped rotating and I fired the grenade launcher. The frag flew towards the Kraken and detonated another one of its tentacles. It roared and exposed the inside of its mouth, which was a considerable red color.

"It's time to die…Seraph activate remaining weapons."

"All weapons activated."

"Die son of a bitch." My VS raised all weapons and fired them all. I couldn't see anything at this point. The only thing in front of me was just the smoke of the grenade launcher, the red beams of my rifle, and the barrage of bullets.

"The heat signature is gone, mission: Kraken is complete."Trio said. The tone in his voice made me realize I lost control.

"What just happened?" I said out loud. I hoped they had an answer, they didn't.

"I don't know but get back here and rest. Trio will look over Seraph and see if the consciousness system is over-loading."Violet said.

The consciousness system was a highly developed system that linked man and machine. It's only added into the most powerful, custom VS but I got a version dubbed the "Hierarchy program". The creator of the system gave the program a personality before dying in an accident.

When the smoke cleared I saw the frozen body of the Akrid. It was filled with hundreds of bullet wounds, burns, and plasma wounds (plasma wounds resembled a purple infected bullet wound). Eventually the body cracked and turned into snow as all of the heat within its body disappeared.

"I don't detect a problem within my system but your mental function seemed to unlock a sort of hidden potential. Most likely an excessive amount of anger provoked adrenaline." Seraph said.

I ignored him and boosted back to the walker, the feeling was gone. I felt it, the Akrid. I knew exactly how to kill it but I don't know why. I didn't get this feeling often, only when we were hunting massive Akrid or in my dreams. Those strange, disturbing, dreams. I closed my eyes and reviewed the entire thing mentally giving Seraph control of the VS.

It was dark and I heard two voices. Complete darkness and these two voices that carried on a conversation in front of me. I didn't know what they were talking about and I don't care if it doesn't involve me.

"How are they doing? General wants them finished before the other Akrid become infected." A deep commanding voice said

"The process is slow but they are evolving quickly. But I still don't agree with this, destroying human lives…" The woman wasn't able to finish before the male cut in.

"I don't know why, this project will make E.D.N III a safer planet for us all. You're kids will never experience the freezing chill or the threat of Akrid of the planet if you finish this."

"But these seven projects are human beings. Why can't we just mass-produce the harmonizer?"

"Have P.A.G, active before the general arrives. That's the end of the story."

This was around the time I woke up. I knew the harmonizer was a special machine used by the leader of the Gale pirates, another group of snow pirates that were aiming to kill the Akrid. But who are these other people and what were they talking about.

"Riax if you don't wake up I'm…" Violet said waking me.

"You're going to what?"

"I knew that would work."

"What were you going to do?" She simply giggled and walked out of the room. I realized I was lying on a bed next to the wall. They carried me out of the VS and put me in here.

"She's fallen for you." Trio said in an irritated tone. I'm not sure why he's pissed I didn't do anything.

"It's not like that, we're partners and she just thinks of me as a friend." Even though I couldn't see his face the strange mood in the room told me that didn't help.

"Partners in a one-sided love relationship." He took off his visor and looked at me with his blue eyes. Honestly, I don't really care what he thinks.

"What do you have against Violet being on the team?"

"Nothing, absolutely nothing. I just hope she'll stay on track that's all." The one thing I don't like about Trio is how emotional he became when Violet is brought in a conversation.

For example, we were sent on a fairly easy mission to destroy an underground Akrid hive. Every thing was going as planned, until when I set the last detonation pack. This immense Akrid came from the ceiling and attacked Violet. She was barely injured, a few bruises and a sprained wrist.

After killing the Akrid we escaped. When we returned to the walker Trio ran around screaming and shouting like she was dying. After going through his little outburst he turned to me and ranted about how I should've protected her since he wasn't there. The only thing that went through my mind was 'when are you ever there'.

Strangely, afterwards he treated Violet as if she was sick dog. He constantly checked to see if she was all right even after she said she needs rest. Actually, it was funny watching Trio slave for no reason at all.

"Here you go Riax, hot white chocolate." That was a surprise. Either she made a lucky guess or she already knew my favorite hot drink. "Like I said, you're too young for this. You still have mommy make you hot chocolate."

"Wow, now you're his mom." Trio said aggravated and honestly. I just wanted to fill his head with lead right now. Or shove a frag down his throat, either one would work…

"Well if you'd stop being such an ass maybe I could be your mom too." She said putting her hands on her hips.

"Amazing, I'd be older than my mother which I love, oh so much."

"Trio, can you go check the radar. I have a strange feeling there's Akrid close by." Honestly, I just didn't want to hear his ass complaining. We exchanged evil glances before he left the room. It's not that I didn't want to be alone with Violet, it's just I didn't want him around at the moment.

" He seriously has his head stuck up his ass." I choked on my hot drink and laughed afterwards. The good girl of the group shouldn't say things like that. "Only thing he wants to do is get in my pants."

Now, I literally choked and gagged. The drink burned my throat and mouth but the humor numbed the pain. Forcing myself to swallow the burning liquid, I sat up and leaned against the metal walls.

"What guy doesn't?"

"Oh, shut up."

I took off my coat showing the black body suit with red neon lines going through it. It kept your body heat in but doesn't keep the cold out. Mine had short sleeves because of my coat. The coat was the same as most clothing except it was flame resistant, electricity resistant, and all around made to protect from Akrid and the cold. I liked it just because it looked cool.

"So what happened in the VS, I mean you just snapped. That wasn't like you." She said and I knew what she meant. I knew it wasn't like me and I also knew that people couldn't sense Akrid. The problem was if I told her she'd worry and send me to the nearest medical facility. Not caring if it was a hospital or dentist.

"I know, just a little stress. The thing was supposed to be dead the first time but then it comes back with friends…" I'm lying, and I know it.

"That makes sense, try to sleep. I'll wake you up when we get there." She said walking out.

I lay down on the bed and stretched out. Being in the freezing cold for a few hours makes a person stiff, or really tired. I closed my eyes but heard the other two talking in another room about me.

"What the hell is your problem? You're acting like Riax hasn't saved your ass before while you sat in here." Violet said to Trio. She walked over and leaned against one of the desks with a load of mission papers. Trio messed with one of the consoles attempting to increase the thermal energy radar.

"I just don't see what you see in him. That's all, nothing personal." Trio said tapping the interactive screens. He pulled up his visor allowing him to see the data streams that allowed him to tweak the system.

"Why do you care any way? You accepted the job of being tech even though you fit the requirements for a hunter so you're not jealous that he's out there and you're not." She said trying to figure out her stubborn partner. Trio is a stubborn ass bitch, that's what I think.

"I enjoy being a tech, it's just that I'm looking out for you." That really ticked me off. But I was too tired to do anything so I stayed in bed.

"What do you mean by, 'looking out for me'?"

"Riax is a hunter, soon he's going to come across a problem and he won't be able to handle it and I don't want you to go through that." What the hell is he trying to say.

"So your saying sooner or later Riax is going to be killed and you don't want me to be hurt."

"Close, but not exactly" That bitch thinks I'm going to die. Some fucking teammate you are Trio. "And after what happened today I don't trust him any more." Fuck you Trio.

"Fuck you, after all the times he saved our ass you lose trust after a little battle stress." I didn't expect Violet to take that so personal. My mind wanted to rest but I waited to hear the end of the conversation.

"Say what you must but soon you'll have to make a decision between him and what should be more important to you." After that I fell asleep. Violet stomping out the room told me that the drama was over.


	2. Eve

(A/N- Two things, should I change this to an M rating, and I didn't put it in but some concepts were taken from Resident Evil. You don't need to follow Resident Evil to now what's going on.)

I slept silently but once again had another fucked up dream. It was the same as before, I couldn't use any of my senses except for hearing. The only difference being the two men shouting at each other.

"Quick, lock down the entire facility and activate thermal generator. Gabriel has escaped." I heard the explosions and guns in the distance. I personally think Gabriel was one of those rumored test Akrid.

"Leave Gabriel alone. He was created to hunt down the origin of the Sin-virus." A deeper voice said in a calm tone. "Tell all soldiers to avoid him at all costs."

"But General, Gabriel is as powerful as an X-class infected Akrid. We can't let something as dangerous as him just walk freely"

"Finish the project and make sure the other six don't escape. The last thing we want is for them to hunt each other." The deep voice sounded strangely relaxed, which was unusual. People were most likely dying and this "General" was perfectly relaxed.

Riax, when are you going to get an alarm clock so I don't have to wake you up." Violet said.

"But you said you'd wake me up when we get there." I complained. The conversation between her and Trio came to mind instantly. "So where did Trio go?"

"He went to the lab to go and deliver the condensed thermal energy. Why don't you go walk around town for a little while and get some warm air."

Ever since the destruction of the frontier project a group of snow pirates set up warm spots all over E.D.N. III. We're currently in Paradise Solo, the first warm spot made. Sadly, the production stopped around ten years ago when the Sin-Virus first made its debut. A large amount of infected Akrid attacked some big organizations science.

"It's been a while. I was getting tired of talking to Akrid then having to shoot them afterwards." I joked and sat up. Violet simply laughed and walked out of the room.

I put on my coat and exited the walker examining my surroundings. It was warm, a strange tingling sensation spread through me. It was uncomfortable, yet cozy. I looked back at the post next to the walker and checked the number. We were parked in space V-25 and Trio paid for two days.

Paradise Solo was the first warm spot made, which also made it the biggest and most populated. A giant wall with an automated defense system that protected it from any Akrid surrounded it. There are thirteen sides to the wall and each side holds two ports for any registered transports.

"Hey, Riax. It's been a while how come you never visit." I looked up to see a man in front of me in his mid-fifties. He was dressed casually with a black T-shirt and blue jeans.

"Well, when you're stuck shooting Akrid for a living you don't have much time to visit old people." Both of us laughed.

"I used to be a NEVEC soldier and a snow pirate, remember that. I helped stop the Frontier Project, if you were a older you would've known that." The old guy I'm talking to now is Joe. Ever since he helped stop the frontier project he chose to live a life of peace and started a local bar. But he still helps by supplying snow pirates with equipment.

"Well I'm not older and the only thing I know is that I'm hungry." I said holding my stomach. It was against Vermilion hunter protocol to bring food on missions. The walkers came with a huge supply of healthy but disgusting food, not all of it's bad, just most of it.

"When you get a chance come down by my place. I'll cook you some thing real that doesn't come in small packages." Being a NEVEC soldier, Joe knew what the improvised food tasted like.

"I have to go report back to base first but I'll be over soon." I said walking past Joe. Busy workers ran around carrying crates off of a shipment walker that was parked next to us.

I was in the business district of Paradise Solo so the roads were mostly empty. The sun glowed brightly and made the area seem like heaven compared to the outside. I traveled through the city until I came up to a building the same as the rest except for one feature. The handles were replaced with a large "V" for the door on the left and an "H" for the right.

I walked into the grand building to be greeted by the president and leader of the Vermilion hunters. William was dressed in one of the most expensive suits I've ever seen. His blond hair was brushed back in a formal manner while his green eyes had a strange proud look to them.

His son, Hunter, was standing directly next to him wearing a white suit opposite to his dads black. He watched me with an annoying smile on his face and that seriously pissed me off. I walked up to William and waited to hear what he had to say.

"So, Riax. How did the mission go, I hope it wasn't too much trouble." He said. I had nothing against the guy personally; I just wanted to see him do some of the work some time.

"Besides being attacked by crimson pirates. Everything went fine. You said it was important we hurried back so what is it." We walked back into his office and he sat down at a large desk. I lazily dropped on one of the couches while Hunter tried to copy me on another couch. Like an idiot, he almost knocked over a lamp.

"It's another mission, if you're team is up to it. It sounds like something along your forte, you know loads of powerful Akrid ready and waiting to rip you apart." Apparently William knew me better than I thought.

"Or are you going to get afraid and go clean my VS." Hunter said in his cocky attitude.

"I'd be amazed if you knew how to use a VS." I said.

"You piece of shit." He said pulling a revolver out of his shirt. I just as quick flipped out my magnum handgun and pointed it directly at his left eye. We froze for a second waiting for the other to move.

"Riax put your weapon away. My son, please leave until we've finished our business." William said calmly. Hunter and me lowered our guns at the same time. When he stood to walk out of the room I elbowed him in the side. The door slammed behind him as he stomped furiously down the hallway.

"I'm sorry for Hunter's behavior. He's been bound to Paradise Solo for so long he's been itching for a fight." The president said while picking up some papers and handing them to me.

"If he wanted to fight you should've let me take him. You know I could've at least used him for target practice." Hunter really fucking pissed me off with his high and mighty ass.

"I can't let you do that, he's supposed to be the next president of the Vermilion Hunters. But besides that, look through the mission specs. It's a little different than the rest of them."

I opened the folder and glanced through the papers ignoring the first few. The first few pages were always a load of legal mess that I never paid attention to. I flipped through a little more until I reached a picture of what looked like an abandoned NEVEC facility.

"What, you want me to go and explore some empty science lab?" I'm wondering what he meant by this seemed like a mission I would take now.

"Well, if you'd read the details. It says the mission is from some one known as the 'General'. They asked specifically for your team to fix the problem."

The General, there was a small chance that this person is the same one from my dreams. I dropped the idea all together, maybe it was just a coincidence. William waited for the puzzled look on my face to leave before he continued.

"The client wants you to go in to this base, find, and kill an Akrid that has made his lab into it's home. But there's only one problem with all of this."

"What is it?"

"The Akrid you'll be hunting is named Eve. The catch is that this is a G-class Akrid and is possibly infected with the Sin-Virus."

"Holy shit, an infected G-class Akrid. How much is the pay." I can't believe that I was getting a G-class infected Akrid. I rarely get G-class but a G-class with a possible infection means big money.

"It's 7 million dollar catch. You'll get 3 million to pay for your services, 1 million goes to pay for any damages to equipment and supplies, the left over of the supply money will be sent directly to you. The other 3 million will go to the company. You should begin in a few days."

"Hell yes. I'll take it." I shouted and ran out of the room. I dashed out of the building and ran towards the local bar. I ran through the door and jumped over a table that was blocking my way.

"Hey slow down, Riax chill out what happened." Joe said when I jumped the table and landed in a stool in front of the bar. I landed on the stool and slammed my hands on the table bringing a lot of attention to myself.

"3 million, that's how much my next hunt is. 3-fuckin-million dollars in cash, and I'm hunting a G-class Akrid that's possibly infected." I said excitedly. Hell, I can't help it. Only the legendary hunters get missions with a pay like this.

"Wow, 3 million. That's a lot but are you sure you can handle an Akrid that strong. Or one that has a possible infection." Joe said while writing on a piece of paper. He passed the paper back to the chef and ordered me a special meal, or at least I hope it was special.

"Fuck that, I'm a natural born Akrid hunter. I'll waste it then go on a vacation."

"You're probably going to waste it all in no time." Joe said searching the area. I wondered what he was looking for until he poured me a large cup of wine. "If Violet saw me do this she'd kill me."

"Today can't get any better." I said before chugging the glass. This wasn't the first time Joe snuck me a drink and won't be the last. I looked to my left and saw a guy sitting next to me wearing a long grayish robe. He looked up then turned towards me and I instantly recognized whom it was.

The black hair that was in a wild style, the bright yellow eyes, and the tattoo on his fore head of a symbol that meant sound. He was a legendary independent hunter.

"Holy shit, aren't you the Devil Thunder." I said in awe. Devil Thunder was one of E.D.N III strongest hunters. He protected Paradise Duo from two infected G-class Akrid alone with his personal weapons.

"Yeah, and you're called the Young Evil in Paradise Duo." That surprised me. I never thought I did much to earn a title in another Paradise. He pulled out a small black book and opened it to a page then directed it towards me.

It had my name, age, height, picture, which company I worked for, and then my title at the bottom in bold letters. That's kind of weird though, I've never stayed in Paradise Duo, and the last time I was there I fought back a swarm of Trilid then destroyed the hive. That's not enough to give you a title, is it?

"Apparently you're not sure how you got that title judging by the look on your face. Listen, when you saved Paradise Duo, some of the soldiers that helped you said you dropped exactly 1298 Trilids alone." I thought about it and it didn't seem like that much. Honestly, I thought I just killed about a hundred of them then moved to the hive.

"But killing Trilid doesn't match up to killing two infected Godon." It didn't feel right placing myself above one of the hunters I looked up to. I'm never going to admit it but you could say Devil Thunder would be my idol.

"Wow, you've also done your research on what you hunt." He was referring to my ability to now the Akrid by name. At times, I'd grab one of the books published by NEVEC and study the newly discovered Akrid or the strategies for killing others.

"Here you go, on the house." Joe said passing me a bowl of his special recipe. It was an unusual soup with nothing but different meats inside that included beef, ham, chicken, bacon, and a load of other good stuff. Sounds strange but tastes like heaven.

"Thanks Joe. Hey, Devil Thunder what brings you to Paradise Solo." I asked between slurping down the soup.

"I'm going to investigate the Green Eye remains. There's a rumor going around that some evil cult went there to worship Akrid and I'm getting paid to do some recon." He laughed in the end. I don't blame him, an Akrid worshipping cult sounds plain stupid. " I better get going, I only stopped to by to see if the rising Young Evil was around."

He dropped some money on the table paying for his bill and left quickly. I enjoyed his company but it's never good to keep a payment waiting, even the most inexperienced hunters knew that. I ate with a small sense of pride, being recognized by a legend by a title was a big deal.

"Well Young Evil, I'm pretty sure you didn't tell Violet and Trio about the new mission yet."

"I'll tell them later." I was too hungry to worry about that now.

"You might want to now. They just walked in." I turned around to see Violet and Trio walking up to me. She walked up to me and sat to my right while Trio stood.

"I dropped off the cash in the walker already, so are we chilling here for a few days or did you already find us another mission." Trio said in a cocky attitude. If I weren't eating I would've shot him in the leg, or is that just the alcohol talking.

"I already found us a mission and you'll love this one." I said with an evil smile. Trio rolled his eyes and tilted his head while Violet tackled me off of my stool and sat on my stomach.

"What's the mission? It better be a good one or we're going to have a problem." She said staring at me.

I reached in my coat and pulled out the folder with the mission specs and handed it to Violet. She snatched it from my hand and flipped through the pages getting to the mission objective.

"You're going to be hunting a G-class Akrid with an infection." She shouted. I wasn't sure if she was excited or worried but the later seemed the most likely.

"This is the problem I was talking about." Violet shot Trio with a quick 'shut up' glance then looked back at me.

"But you've never faced a mission this big before. And we don't even know who the General is"

"Calm down, the only thing I have to do is kill it and get out of there. Everything will be fine. Plus, the pay for the mission is 3 million."

Trio's eyes shot up and stared at me. The highest pay we've had yet was 1.5 million and that was for bringing down an Undeep. Violet stared into my eyes and she finally came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to change my mind.

"Fine, but I'm going with you."

"You can't go, it's too dang…"

It hit me that the reason why she didn't want me to go was because it was too dangerous. So if I stop her from going she has the right to stop me. She had that same determined look in her eye that I did just a second ago.

"Violet, you can't go. What would you do if something happened to Riax? I won't allow it." Trio shouted.

At that moment we realized the strange silence for a bar. All of us looked around and noticed the entire room was staring at us. We quickly and calmly got up and made our escape from the attention. Once we got outside the conversation continued.

"What do you mean by you won't allow it? As a scout it's my job to support him while he's on the field." Violet argued getting in Trio's face. For a pretty girl she has an ugly attitude.

"You're a scout, not a hunter or a soldier. If that Akrid is infected the chances of Riax being able to handle it are zero." Trio shouted back.

"Well I don't see you risking your life on every mission just so we can survive because none of us have parents to take care of us."

It grew extremely silent after what I said. All of us knew it was true and it seemed like fate we were organized in the same group. I'm not going to say I'm sorry either, he complains about my skill when he has none of his own.

Truth is, none of us had parents. William raised me but he told me my parents died in a NEVEC rebellion. Violet lived with her father who was a scientist until he was killed by a group of unknown soldiers. Trio lived with his mom who was also a scientist but was killed by some unknown soldiers, most likely the same ones that killed Violet's dad.

"I know, all of us has lost everything. That's why we are together now, because we have nothing besides each other." Violet mumbled. She folded her arms and looked at the ground sadly.

"I know that and I'm not going to let him take the only thing I have left." Trio declared in a demanding voice.

"You have nothing unless you're willing to protect it with your life." I said to Trio.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out a Desert Eagle but by the time he raised it I already drew and loaded my semi-auto pistol. We stood in silence for a moment waiting for the other to move. I honestly wanted to pull the trigger but the hand that was placed on top of our guns lowered them.

"The last thing we need is for you two to be killing each other. Trio head back to the walker and chill, I'll take Riax to doctor Z for a check-up." Violet said stopping what would have ended in a gunfight.

Trio put the gun away and turned away from us. I waited until he was a distance away to tell Violet some thing I noticed.

"Is it just me or has Trio been on edge recently." I said. I wanted to see if Violet would tell me about the conversation they had when they thought I was asleep.

"Trio's had a lot on his mind recently. We're all just under a lot of stress recently, even I'm stressed with you taking all these high class missions."

"Wait a minute, don't start blaming all of this on me now. Just because I like to have some fun doesn't me this is my fault."

Violet just simply chuckled and walked towards the doctor's house with me behind. She's made it a job of hers to force me to get these scans after every mission. It was fairly weird because Doctor Z was a psycho bent on using me as his latest experiment.

We walked up to his house that was actually a giant warehouse that he sleeps and does whatever he does inside of. Violet knocked on the steel door and waited for a reply, I hoped he didn't answer but he did.

"Who the hell is it?" The old mans cackling voice screamed.

"It's Violet and Riax you know, the only people that visit you without a warrant for your arrest." Violet shouted next to me rolling her eyes. After visiting this bastard multiple times I'd think he'd remember us.

"Oh, come in please. I want to see how healthy my favorite hell spawn is after a dangerous mission."

"Shut up you old dirty bastard." I shouted back.

When we opened the door it was just a small dark room with stairs that led to the basement. There was a blue light coming from the basement that let us know where he was and what he was doing.

When there was a blue light in the basement he was making weapons. A red light from the basement usually meant he was experimenting on the Akrid corpses he preserved. We went down the steps and glanced around the room observing the jars, beakers, bottles, and all sorts of chemical experiment equipment.

"I've been waiting for you to return. Do you know how hard it is to find people like you?" The old man wore long black lab coat with a huge pair of visors. His hair went in every direction proving that he spent all his time locked up in this place.

"Why can't you take me to a normal doctor." I whimpered to Violet.

"You know none of the normal doctors are as good as Z."

But that was the problem. Doctor Z _was_ an incredible medical doctor and an even better bio-organic weapons scientist. Sadly, he couldn't tell the difference between a patient and his latest project so he mixed the two. Who ever he was working for fired him and now he's here, hidden in Paradise Solo. I always imagined some injured person walking out of the hospital then suddenly exploding, makes me laugh each time.

"Now Riax, you know what to do." He said in a demented tone.

"Go to hell."

I walked over to a table and rolled on it relaxing on the top. I looked at the scanner above me that Z created to read the human body. He walked over to it and began pressing buttons and doing other medical/mechanical work that I never cared for.

"Now hold still or I'll inject you with Akrid poison."

The red light flashed over me for a quick second and then it was done. I rolled off the table and started back to the door knowing that I was fine but Violet stepped in my way stopping me.

"Now what's this? Interesting it seems as if my little hell spawn has a love interest in some one. Now who could that be?" I hate it when Z does this. Some how in some way he can read my mind or some thing by looking at those strips of paper that came out of the scanner.

Violet stepped back in surprise and I knew to shut Z up. I pulled out my magnum and shot the paper in the doctor's hands. He screamed and jumped back in surprise while I just paced out of the building.

"So who is it Riax?" Violet said in a cute childish voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Who's the lucky girl that stole the heart of the battle scarred, proud, and powerful Riax." She said making it sound like a fairy tale.

"The old guy's crazy don't listen to him."

"But you sure got mad when he mentioned that interest you have." Violet walked in front of me and turned around. She walked backwards while staying on this stupid topic.

"That's because I don't need some old ass getting in my head."

"So you do have a love interest." What the hell…

"Just drop it Violet."

"Well you don't know that many females so it's either Joe's daughter, or me." When she mentioned herself a big grin crossed her face and she was more determined to figure it out.

"I don't love Joe's daughter. If I did Joe would probably force us to get married." For some reason Violets grin grew bigger. But not in a annoying way, but an actual smile.

"What about me?"

I wasn't sure what to say at that point. If I said yes, who knows what she'd say and Trio would have a fit. But if I said no, I'm not sure if I'd be lying or not.

"I'm just asking because I heard Trio saying my name while he was sleeping and I wondered if you loved me as much." She said after noticing my confused expression.

"Trio says your name while he's sleeping?"

"I told you all he wants to do is get in my pants."

We laughed off the moment and went back to the walker. The entire time we just made fun of Trio and brought up old memories. It was a good conversation until Violet brought up one of the bad memories.

"Riax, do you remember that time when a Raibee snuck up behind you. It scared us all when you were hurt, even William showed up at the hospital."

I recalled the incident perfectly. It was an average mission, find the Gorechryatis, kill it, and leave. After I killed it I turned around to see a bee-like Akrid charging at me. Its stinger was charged with electricity and it stabbed me in the gut in a second. At that point I blacked out, when I awoke it was in the middle of the night.

Violet was sleeping in a chair next to my hospital bed and William was filing out some medical reports. Trio left and went back to the walker a while ago. He tried to take Violet with him but she stayed with me.

"Yeah, I remember that. From that point on I promised myself to never get stabbed again."

"The doctors said your body absorbed electric pulses which freaked everybody out. That was also around the time we decided to use Z as your medic."

"That was also the time Trio got pissed at me for getting stabbed."

As we neared the walker I noticed Joe's daughter standing by my VS. Trio was better with computers but she was good when it came to VS technology. She stood there putting in different pieces around the hip section.

"Yo, Luka, what are you doing with Seraph." Joe named her after a dead friend of his back in his snow pirate days.

She turned and looked at me then went back to her work. Her long black hair covered her left eye and the clothes she wore also belonged to Joe's late friend.

"Riax, you should take more care of your VS. It's so unique compared to the mass produced NEVEC units. I took out your old weight balances and put in new stabilizers so you should be able to move faster in harsh conditions."

"Seraph would tell me if there was any problems with his system." I replied walking up to her. I jumped on top of the VS and began tinkering with the chain guns, if I left them alone after a mission they'd jam up.

"Lady Luka has found several minor issues that would prevent my maximum performance." Seraph said.

"Whose side are you on and when did you start calling her Lady Luka?" I shouted at Seraph.

"I'm on my own side and she just asked." It's really weird when a VS is getting smart to you.

I finished with the weapons check so I went inside the Walker. I didn't want to put up with them at the moment so I left. When I walked in Trio trying to make a move on Violet greeted me.

"Violet, you have to understand by now. He's going to get killed out there and your just going to follow him." Trio said.

"Until you go out on the field and shoot down Akrid I suggest you shut up."

"You know he doesn't care about you like I do. You said yourself 'When I asked him if he loved he didn't reply'. What do you think that means?" Violet looked down confused, apparently that statement got to her. At this time I had to get in the conversation.

"I never said no, a moment of silence should be taken as a maybe." Trio shot me a hateful look while Violet seemed relieved to see me.

"This doesn't involve you, shouldn't you be out shooting something."

"You shouldn't be trying to figure out what goes through my head. Violet, I'm sorry I didn't answer the question I just needed some time to think about the answer."

"No, don't try pretending that you care about what she feels now. It's too late Riax, she's mine." That was the wrong thing for Trio to say.

"What the fuck do you mean by I'm yours. I didn't agree to anything and how your acting I'm never going to." Violet stomped away and marched outside.

Trio got fed up with me and took this problem to the next level. He pulled out the same Desert Eagle and shot for my leg. I jumped up and pulled a knife out of my coat and threw it. Trio leaned right but it put a small cut on his cheek, the blood dripped out slowly and he wiped it away.

"Let's make a deal, if I kill the Akrid before you, you have to stay away from Violet. If you kill it before me, I'll give up trying to be with her." I thought about the deal he just offered and considered it. If he left Violet alone I wouldn't have to hear his ass bugging me about her.

"Fine, I accept. I'll also give you a fifteen minute head start."

"It's a deal. But do you really believe that people like you can do anything besides destroy." Trio honestly believed that just because I was a hunter I was shut out from the world.

"But people like you can't seem to understand when they've been rejected." We both knew I was talking about the multiple times Trio tried to talk to her and she just cut him off.

"It doesn't matter, I'll become the better man for her." I saw the determination in his eyes. To me, it seemed a little like obsession than determination. "But Riax, the truth. How do you feel for her, I want to know if we have the same thoughts?"

"The truth, I really don't feel like telling you." I said before walking out. I left Trio there to think about anything.

"You bastard" He muttered while standing up.

"And fuck you too." I said raising my middle finger over my shoulder.


	3. Friends

(A/N- I'm not sure if I should bump this up to M, review and tell me.)

I'm not sure when it happened, why it happened, or how it happened. But I do know that it all went down hill. I leaned around the corner and shot down two soldiers with Violet behind me. Devil Thunder ran up behind me and put one hand on my shoulder letting me know that his side was clear.

"Damn it Trio."I said to myself. Violet leaned against the wall and covered her ears. The sound of gunshots echoed throughout the building and she was already put through a lot. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she quickly lost her composure. I barely kept myself together, I wasn't sure if I was human or not anymore. I'm starting to believe I'm not.

"There's more on the way and they have bigger guns. We have to go now." Devil Thunder shouted at me. He had a woman in his arms, we found her inside this place and decided that we couldn't leave her here.

* * *

Outside Arklay Research facility-7:00 a.m.-Riax 

I stood by the walker's hangar as Trio walked inside with an automatic rifle and one rapid-fire Desert Eagle. Trio and me told Violet about the deal on the way here and she hated it but eventually I talked her out of it.

"He's going to die." Violet said in a worried voice. I knew how she felt but I didn't care as much. Trio has little to no battle experience and now he's taking a mission that would be a challenge for the experts.

"Don't worry, he's smart enough to survive for fifteen minutes. It was his idea in the first place so he wouldn't say it if he wouldn't survive." I said calming her. Lucky me, it worked.

"Alright, but we're going in there in exactly fifteen minutes." Even though she didn't like Trio she still cared for his life.

"Fine, you might want to get ready. This'll be harder than usual." I said loading my assault rifle. She paced past me taking deep breaths. "Listen, this little bet may seem crazy to you but… it's important to us so just go with it."

"I'm just worried about Trio trying to be a hero." She said as the door slid closed behind her.

I watched as the doors to the facility closed behind my idiot of a partner. I raised my right arm and pressed a button on my watch that set an alarm for exactly fifteen minutes. As soon as it went off, Violet's going to rush out of the walker and drag me with her.

She didn't like Trio, but she didn't want him to get killed either. It was understandable, you wouldn't die for a stranger but you don't want to see them get shot in the head. I looked to my right and saw a book I left on the desk next to some ammo and gun pieces sprawled out on the table.

"The Hunter Guide to Akrid Infection. Volume 26" I read aloud. I wondered why they make the title sound so casual. It's a book that shows people how to kill giant aliens, I don't think that's a book but more like a survival guide.

I flipped open the book and searched through the pages for what I was hunting. It would be in the recent discoveries section so I went to the back of the book. Once I saw the picture of what I was hunting I knew we had to go in there and save Trio.

Eve was a huge bee-like Akrid. The problem wasn't its type but the evolution it went through after infection. Eve kept the same physical features but it grew larger and began to form a hive with smaller versions known as Able growing inside. After a while, the Ables grew four legs and a stinger and changed into Kane.

The final factor in Eve's evolution was the worst. After a while it begins to release a spore that has been known as the Arklay-poison. The poison changed all brain cells and degraded them to Akrid level. Once the brain cells are changed, the body then begins to go through the process

I listened closely and heard gunshots coming from the facility. I tossed the book and placed two magnum handguns, two uzis, one assault rifle, and my personal plasma rifle inside my coat. I grabbed a load of grenades not caring what kind they were and shouted for Violet.

"Violet, we have to go now." I shouted. She came running around the corner and stopped in front of me in a flash. I looked down at her hand and saw she was holding two semi-auto handguns.

"Why, what happened?"

"I checked up Eve's profile and this mission is too big to take a chance on." I looked up at Violet and saw the 'I told you so' look on her face.

"We have to go help him."

"No, you stay here. I'll go." I wasn't ready to take the chance of risking Violet on this mission.

"We all ready went over this. If you risk your life I am too." We grew silent. She was set on going and I knew she was right. This was my fault; I never thought that infected Akrid became so dangerous. But I'll take responsibility and kill it.

I walked over to a metal case resting on one of the shelves and pressed on the red light. The front panel of the case slid open exposing a needle with eight points. I pulled it out of the case and handed it to her.

"What's this for?"

"The air inside is poisonous, I'll be fine but you'll be infected and I'm not taking that risk." I'm not sure what gave me the idea that I'd be fine. For some reason, I'm pretty sure I'll be all right.

Strangely, she didn't question my orders and instantly took the vaccine. She flinched slightly when the needles stuck her but I knew it'd be better than what would happen if she didn't. After taking it she wiped away the blood and looked at me.

"Let's go."

I pressed the sequence on the lock to open the hangar. Once it opened the temperature in the room dropped from a warm seventy to a chilling below zero. We ran across the small gap between the walker and the building and ran in through the front door of the facility. Along the way I told her the entire story of what Eve could do.

"Damn it." I muttered. Directly in front of us was a massive Genessa. It was already surrounded by Sepia. I decided not to waste ammo and used my magnum.

Every shot dropped one of them instantly. My handgun was custom so it pierced the flesh and got the T-eng pouches directly. After taking out a large amount of them only seven were left including the Genessa. I threw a plasma grenade at them and waited for the shock.

The grenade exploded into an electric field killing all of the Akrid. Violet walked over to a data post and started to activate it by pressing multiple keys on the panel. The data post changed and grew as a tower came out of the top of it, she pulled out a PDA and linked it with the post giving her a map of the building.

"You might want to hurry, we still have to find Trio and more Akrid'll be heading this way." I locked another clip into my magnum and waited for her to finish.

"Give me a second, it's a little trick I learned with data posts inside of buildings." The post released a strange wave of heat. Even though the main generator of the building was working it was still cold.

"Just hurry up." I leaned against the wall and waited.

Seconds later she stood up holding the PDA and flipped it around towards me. I looked closely and saw a 3-D lay out of the building with red streams going through the walls. At the direct bottom of the building was an immense point filled in with red.

"The red is thermal energy. The facilities T-eng flow is still working and that's probably what attracted the Akrid. That large mass of T-eng in the basement is most likely Eve's hive."

"Let's move." I commanded and ran down the corner.

We jogged down a long hall for a while as Violet stopped at every door and checked her PDA. After room fifteen there was supposed to be a hallway that led to an elevator. She continued punching buttons on the pad trying to do something.

"I found him." She shouted.

"Trio?"

"He's in basement five. But we have to hurry he's getting close to a large amount of Akrid and he'll need your help."

Even though I was saving Trio's life this seemed wrong to me. We made a perfectly honest deal and if I saved him things would go back to the way they were. Honestly, it'd be worse then because I saved him and brought along Violet. We passed by door fifteen and turned towards the elevator.

Two fully-grown and ready to explode Bolsepia stood in front of the doors to the elevator. We froze instantly, my guns were useless, and if I shot they'd explode and destroy the elevator. I had a plan to lure the Bolsepia away before shooting them but it didn't work. They turned around instantly when they heard the sound of Violet dropping her PDA.

"Fuck, Violet follow me."

Both of us took off and ran down the hall. I was slightly behind her so she wouldn't get caught in the explosion. Once I flipped out my magnum I spun around and fired four bullets, two directly into the explosive heads of each Bolsepia.

The ground shook and the force threw us both to the floor. The Bolsepia detonated sending a giant wave of fire over us. Once everything cooled down I stood up and pulled up my magnum looking for more Akrid.

"The Bolsepia and the Sepia were the only Akrid up here. We have to take the elevator to the fifth basement and search for Trio."

I leaned over and pulled Violet up to her feet. We proceeded towards the elevator to find Trio. What we didn't know was that Trio was learning things we never knew. This is when hell broke loose.

* * *

Fifth Basement-Arklay Research Facility-7:55-Trio 

I backed up against a wall with the automatic rifle raised and peaked around the corner. The farther down in the building the less lights were working. I felt dizzy, sick; there was a strange taste to the air. It tasted like death, and something else, almost an addicting, sweet flavor.

"I'm still feeling dizzy, it seems to be getting worse. But I refuse to lose this deal, she's too important to me." I said into his headset. I set it on record so I could make a journal of this adventure. " Every thing's wrong down here. The Akrid resemble humans and the air is… it's strange. Nothing I can describe."

I walked around the corner after flipping the switch on the flashlight. On the ceiling were low-hanging lights; they seemed to be positioned to let Akrid hide in the darkness. I stepped forward and slowly paced through the barely lit hall. There was a noise coming from behind, it sounded like metal scratching against each other.

I quickly spun around to see what was behind and stared in fear at the "Akrid" behind me. It was a soldier, but not a NEVEC soldier, a soldier from another force. Even though the clothing was similar the symbol on his right shoulder was a red and white eight-sided figure, with the word Umbrella written under it.

That wasn't what brought fear into my heart. What scared me was the fact that this soldier was only half human. He grew a long scorpion-like stinger from the bottom of his spine and his skin was slowly changing into a scale-like exoskeleton. The scratching metal noise was his tail extending from his body and slashing the wall.

His hands began to split open and reveal bloody claws growing painfully. The expression on his face, or what was left of his face was inhuman. The left side was completely sickening, the skin seemed to peel off and the layer underneath was still red and bleeding.

"Gen..Gen…Genocide." The thing muttered out between heavy breathes.

"Genocide, what are you saying."

"The truth… Project. Angel. Genocide." The man/Akrid roared after saying it's last words and charged towards me. I regained focus and pulled down on the trigger releasing a flurry of bullets into the human half of its head. I justified my action by thinking that I was putting him out of his misery.

It fell backwards and slammed against the ground. Blood pooled from his head telling me that some part of him was still human. I turned away after reloading my rifle.

"The truth, Project. Angel. Genocide? What the hell was it talking about?"

Then the symbol on its arm came into my mind. I remember it, it was important to me as if it was a part of my life before I became a snow pirate.

"Dad."

It was the symbol on everything my father had. Every single report, lab coat, pen. He was a scientist, but he refused to tell me what he worked on. Every time I asked he said that it was something to save E.D.N. III from itself. I looked around and down the hall I noticed the symbol on a door.

Slowly, I stepped towards the door. Curious to know what's on the other side I walked up to it and grabbed hold of the handle. I pulled my hand off and noticed the dry blood that was smeared across it. Gripping my rifle, I pushed open the door and waited for a response.

A large central computer, that's all that was in the room. One computer and behind it was a window that showed a room too dark to see in. I slowly stepped in the room switching from side to side to make sure it was safe. It was silent, the only noise was the low buzzing of the computer activating itself.

"Please state desired action." It said in a female voice.

"What?"

"Please state desired action."

This computer was a database search engine. Apparently, whoever was here used this to keep up with their research. The door closed behind me slowly and I attempted to figure out what was going on here.

"Where's the staff that worked here?"

"All staff has been evacuated or executed to prevent the infection from moving to the outside world." Since when did you execute your staff?

"What infection?" I walked in front of the mainframe and sat down in the chair. I had to figure out what happened here.

"Eve, was a battle ready Akrid created to test the angels abilities. Unfortunately, the virus used to make Eve spread, infecting staff and ending the project." The angels, didn't that soldier outside mention the angels.

"Who are the angels?" I wasn't ready for the answer.

"The angels consist of seven humans modified to increase their abilities. They also possess certain traits to help them combat the Sin-virus. Their original purpose was to destroy all Akrid infected by the Sin-Virus."

"Where are the angels now?"

"Michael and Uriel were taken by NEVEC to be used for more experiments. William Vermilion took Raphael into custody to test his current ability. Raguel, Zerachiel, and Remiel are still in the hands of Umbrella. Gabriel was released."

I was confused but I needed more answers. William couldn't hide something like this from every one. There had to be more to it than this.

"What happened to Raphael?"

"William took Raphael and renamed him Riax Vermilion. Information about all other angels has been deleted."

Riax isn't human, Violet has been falling for monster. I couldn't let this happen, this wasn't about who could kill Eve first. Now I had to terminate the real problem, Riax was an angel. Made to kill and that's all he'll understand. But before I did that, I needed to understand everything about the angels.

"What exactly is the Sin-virus?"

"The original Sin-virus was known as the T-virus. The disaster that forced earth's evacuation was the T-virus spreading throughout the planet. The Sin-Virus is a new strand of the T-virus developed to kill Akrid. Sadly, the virus failed and it forced the Akrid to evolve."

These new Akrid that terrorized humans were made by humans. I honestly can't say I wasn't surprised, I suspected the evolution was our fault. But no one knew that the earth was evacuated because of the virus. The earth's evacuation was a long time ago, no one knew why either.

"How can I kill an angel?" Riax has to die. I'm not going to let him betray us one day.

"You can't. Unless you kill it before they realize their ability and awaken."

I thought about this and Riax hasn't awakened his ability. He hasn't show anything out of the normal besides losing his sanity occasionally. But I have to be sure.

"What are the abilities of Raphael."

"Specific data unknown: Generic abilities involve Akrid detecting senses, enhanced strength, speed, durability, and a healing factor. They also absorb T-eng to increase their abilities further."

That was all the information I needed. Riax was still human, and I don't plan on letting him go any farther. I'll expose his secret to Violet and she'll come to me instantly after realizing what he is. Then I'll kill him.

* * *

Second Basement-Arklay Research Facility-8:35-Riax 

I fired furiously while Violet hacked into a terminal. We were at a dead end, the door was locked and Akrid ambushed us on the elevator so we got out early. Miniature bee-like akrid known as Able flew toward me but before they came close I blew them out of the air.

My magnums ran out of ammo so I put them away and pulled out my assault rifle. It took them out faster than my magnums but I could only shoot one Able at a time. There was a beeping noise behind me and the door slid open.

"Come one." Violet shouted at me.

She rolled into the room and I jumped in. But not before dropping a plasma grenade on the ground. When the door closed, the grenade exploded sending an electric current through the terminal on the other side. The door then activated an auto-lock.

"Holy shit." Violet said dropping on the ground. I looked around the room, apparently it was an office and lucky us there was another door on the opposite side of the room. But before we moved on, we needed to rest.

"How the hell did he get to the fifth basement so fast." I said sitting down in the chair behind the desk. I opened the drawer and lucky me, found a whole box of magnum ammo.

"Apparently, he took the basement all the way down and moved from there. At this rate, anything could've happened."

I dug threw the desk looking for more things. I found a few pencils, porn, a picture of this person and his son. I froze, his son, resembled Trio in every way. The blue eyes, the signature blond braid.

"Violet, look at this." I said in awe.

"What is it?"

She stood up and walked over to me and saw the picture and had the same reaction. Trio never knew what his father did, but we just found out. I handed Violet the picture and pulled up the journal underneath. It had "Progress Journal of Seth Sapphire' written on the front. I opened the journal and began to read it aloud.

_Taurus/9/project day 75_

_The Fallen are finished development and their being named at this very moment. These VS are the next-generation of technology. Most of their development was guess work so we still aren't sure how they work. Soon they'll have the 'Hierarchy' program installed and they'll be tested._

_Taurus/15/project day 81_

_The VS have killed every test pilot. Every time they activate the Consciousness program to use the VS the pilots suffer mental breakdowns and then heart attacks. One pilot survived the activation but committed suicide once he activated the Hierarchy. I've said before the angels should be the only pilots but the General refused to listen to me. The mental links between man and such an advanced machine is destructive to all but the angels. Maybe if we trained soldiers before attempting this they'd survive but the General doesn't want to waste a VS. Wyatt's been asking more question about what I do at work, keeping things like this a secret gets harder and harder._

_Taurus/30/project day 96_

_What makes William think he can walk in and take one of our experiments? My wife, Tessa, told me that he also took one of the angels; apparently it was Raphael because he took one of our strongest VS, Seraph, with him. He better treat Raphael good, Tessa has grown an emotional connection to him. She says it was a young boy that shouldn't be put through such life-ruining experiments. His mother, I think it was Basil, was also taken and experimented on. Every time I ask about his mother I hear that they can't release information on Project Eve._

When I stopped reading I looked over at Violet and she was in tears. I wasn't sure why, but I knew that something was wrong with this journal.

"Violet, what's wrong." I asked standing up and closing the journal.

"T..Tessa, is the name of my mom."

I was shocked. What am I supposed to say; Violet's mom was also a scientist. But then if Tessa was Violet's mom and she was Seth's, Trio's dad's, wife then that made…

"Trio's your brother." I said in disgusted awe. He was so obsessed with being with Violet, even though they were related. I wondered if Trio knew they were related, if he did, then that would be some real life incest.

"The deal you two made was…" She also realized this. I had to get off the topic quickly.

"Listen, when we find Trio this entire thing'll be cleared up." I said dropping the entire thing. But when I looked at the journal, it mentioned my VS, Seraph, and the General.

Things were getting to confusing. The General is the one in my dreams and my VS was, well, it's my VS. I also wonder who Raphael is, or was, depending on if they're still alive. But one thing I know is that when we get threw with this mission I'm going to kick William's ass.

I picked up the journal and handed it to Violet. She grabbed it and stared at it for a minute before putting it in the travel bag she carries with her. She lay down and I gave her time to rest.

I paced back to the drawer, set my watch for thirty minutes, hoped Trio survived, and picked up the porn.

* * *

Sixth Basement-Arklay Research Facility-Armory-9:30-Trio 

Something's wrong with me. I'm growing stronger, slowly, I've been doing things I wasn't able to before. Maybe it's a lasting effect of adrenaline, or maybe I'm just as powerful as Riax.

I left the computer and found an armory farther in. I new all I needed to know and the strange air is making me stronger, faster, overall a better hunter. I had all the guns I needed now, I grabbed two guns, that's all I needed to kill him, an assault rifle, and shotgun. I was up against Riax's custom plasma rifle so I put on the best body armor there.

I walked out of the armory proudly with my new equipment. I stood in front of the door to the testing arena. It was the area where Umbrella planned to test the angels against Eve. It's also the place where Eve resides and where it created the hive. He's going to come here and when he does I'll show him how powerful I am.

* * *

Stairs-Arklay Research Facility-10:30-Violet 

"I know once we find Trio and clear this mess up he'll understand. Trio may be strange but he'd never take it this far."

"I don't think so…" Why would Riax say that?

"What do you mean, listen this deal can't be that important." If a stupid deal about who gets to have me is to the death, it's a deal that never should be made.

"No, he already won the deal. I came in early, but I'm talking about the spores in the air. Remember, you already took the vaccine, but he didn't."

We walked down a large set of stairs. It spiraled down for what seemed like miles. This building is huge, and strangely, the stairs was the only place safe from Akrid. Or at least I thought.

Riax stopped walking and raised one hand. I froze, ever since we walked in, Riax has been detecting the Akrid before I heard them. Riax reached in his coat and leaned over the rail and pulled out his plasma rifle. He began firing rapidly and after two shots a giant Akrid flew down and landed on the steps in front of me dead.

"Damn these assholes, Violet keep moving." He shouted at me. Riax pointed down meaning he wanted to take the stairs all the way to the sixth floor.

I ran down the stairs trying not to fall. I jumped down the steps moving faster. When I looked up I saw the Akrid Riax was shooting. The Akrid were known as Kane, they looked like four-legged spiders with a stinger for a tail.

"Keep moving." Riax yelled. He launched his grappling hook and it wrapped around one of the bars. The next thing I see is him jumping off of the stairs and slide down.

When he slid next to me, he grabbed my arm and pulled me over the bar. I wrapped my arms around his neck and we slid down while he shot the Akrid above us. My eyes were closed, my job was a scout, medic, and to watch over these two. I was never meant to be on the mission myself, just sitting back and hoping it went fine. It usually did, but now I know what Riax has to do when they don't.

My feet slammed against the ground and I stumbled a little. I let go and opened my eyes to see Riax wrapping a grenade in the cord. He fixed a knot in it and took the grappling hook off of his wrist. He had a slight smile on his face as the grappling hook was pulled upwards with a grenade.

"Let's hurry. This is the sixth basement." Riax said as we walked through the door.

The Akrid's screeches were heard coming from the stairs. They echoed in the room we were in. It was a large room, empty, except for a door on the opposite side. There was only one problem with the door, what used to be Trio blocked it.

I felt like I was going to puke. Trio's right arm completely changed, it ripped threw his sleeve and blades grew out of it. The claws on the end were large, made to carve through human flesh. Strangely, Trio didn't seem to mind, it was like he was already used to the change.

"Don't move any closer you piece of shit." Trio shouted.

"What the hell are you talking about? Look at you, you're slowly turning into an Akrid and you're still thinking about the deal." Riax shouted stepping forward.

"So what, I'm stronger than you and now, more deserving of Violet's love."

I stood quiet as these two argued and exchanged insults. In a way it was my fault, they were fighting over me, because of me. Trio changed into that monster just because he wanted my attention, and now they're going to have to kill each other most likely. I thought to myself but Trio said something that scared us all.

"Shut up, you're more of a monster than I am. I let myself become this just so I could kill an angel. Riax, you're the reason why this place has become what it is."

"How the hell are you going to blame this mess on me? It was your choice to come in here I didn't make you... What do you mean by 'Kill an angel'?"

"Don't pretend like you don't know. You're an angel, a genocidal, man-made, Akrid-hunting, monster. I doubt you were ever human."

I was speechless. Riax wasn't human and Trio's slowly morphing into an Akrid. I knew now that this would end in bloodshed, it was Riax or Trio, and I was the prize. Trio reached to his right hip and pulled out the assault rifle. What used to be Trio raised it while Riax pulled out his two uzis. I couldn't keep in what we recently learned any longer; it may stop this fight from happening.

"Trio, you and I are brother and sister."

"W..What are you talking about?" Trio lowered his gun. He lost his focus on Riax and was now focusing on me. I had to explain everything right now.

"Your father was a scientist, his name was Seth Sapphire. My mother's name was Tessa Sapphire. Here look at this."

I reached in my bag and pulled out the "Progress Journal of Seth Sapphire" and threw it at Trio. The book landed in front of him and the picture slid out of him and his father standing in his old room posing for a picture. I hoped this would've changed something, but the poison in the air crushed that hope.

"I don't care."

"What." Riax and me shouted simultaneously.

"I don't care, even if we are related we can still be together."

* * *

Sixth Basement-Arklay Research Facility-Riax 

What the fuck does he mean by he doesn't care. Their siblings, blood siblings at that, it's twisted. I gripped the sub-machine guns and waited. I realized why Trio didn't care.

It was primal instinct. The poison already started to affect his body so it must've done a massive amount of mental damage. That's probably why he considered the infection a blessing once it began to affect his arm. He looked back at me and I knew that some deep shit was about to happen.

"It's time for you to die, Raphael."

"No" Violet screamed.

"Die"


	4. Umbrella

"You piece of shit." Trio shouted at me pulling down the trigger.

His assault rifle fired three shots in a row. I jumped to my left and rolled on the ground, raising both semi-autos I fired. Trio raised his Akrid arm and it took all of the bullets in his forearm. Greenish blood dripped out of his arm before it sealed itself up.

"You see Riax, I've become more of a demon than you'll ever be."

"Isn't that why you hate me so much?"

"Shut up and die human."

The Arklay-poison was getting to him. The Akrid mentality was coming out through his human voice. Now, he hates me because I'm human, not a monster.

He bent his knees and proved his evolution by launching his self threw the air into the supports on the ceiling. It was too dark up there for me to see him, I guessed by the sounds of his claw scratching against the metal supports.

"You see Violet, if I was your brother how could I possibly do something like this." I heard come from directly above.

I looked up and fired at least fifty shots above me. Once I stopped he appeared from the shadows using his arm to cover his self. I jumped backwards as he landed where I used to be. Rolling against the ground, I used my left arm to push myself up and landed on one knee firing both guns.

"Don't do this Trio, this isn't you like you."

"How the hell would you know, you only pay attention to what you can kill next. Well how does it feel to be hunted like the monster you are?"

"Why are you doing this?" Violet shouted at us.

"Fight me Riax, let's see who's the stronger demon."

"Fine Trio, if you want to die. Then shut up and get the fuck over here." I'm tired of hearing him run his mouth. It's either me or him now, and I don't plan on dying.

Trio raised the assault rifle and began to fire rapidly. I ran sideways shooting at the same time. He leaned over avoiding most of the shots and taking the rest in his fucked up arm and charged towards me. It was inhuman how fast he was running, it was like every step took him six feet.

I jumped back when he drew close avoiding an uppercut from his claw. He reached at me with his human arm and I saw the chance to do some permanent damage. I grabbed his human hand and twisted it while pulling out the shotgun his pack. Pressing the barrel against his underarm I pulled the trigger and, boom.

"You fucking shit." Trio screeched in rage, his voice sounding more like a roar than a shout.

He backed up and held the spot where his human arm used to be. It was lying there on the floor between us, blood pooling around it. We were so focused on the fighting we forgot about the lady watching us, well, we didn't forget, just wasn't thinking.

She screamed, very, very loudly. It was almost a screech how loud it was. We looked over at her and she was holding her head breaking down. Trio suddenly considered it my fault and turned towards me armless, or so I thought.

"Look at what you did." He said. His facial expression changed, he looked like he was in pain.

Blood dripped from where his arm used to be more than before. Suddenly, a second Akrid arm seemed to sprout out from where his other arm used to be. It was sickening, now he has two Akrid arms and this makes him more dangerous than before.

"Do you see what happens when you try to kill a god."

The poison has finished his head; we've lost him mentally. Now, I just have to finish him physically. This sounded easy, but no matter how many shots I wasted he just healed.

"Die, just shut up and die."

"That's it, Trio no holding back." I was trying my best not to kill him, but it's a given.

I ran towards him and kneeled down a short distance away and jumped into the air. I flipped above him and held down the triggers on both uzis. Trio leaned back and used his left arm to block the bullets. Something squeezed my ankle and I saw his right arm grabbed me.

I was in for a world of hurt as Trio spun me in circles and let go, flinging me into a wall. I couldn't move, the pain was like nothing I felt before. I raised my head and saw Trio charging directly at me. Forcing myself to move I rolled to the side and pulled out the plasma rifle and aimed.

I shot him directly in the chest once hoping it'd do some damage. His shirt ripped exposing the Akrid like skin that grew on him. It was bulletproof and apparently it worked against plasma rifles. Another sharp pain went threw me as Trio's claw pierced my shoulder.

"I told you I'd win." Trio mumbled in a low graspy voice. He's losing his humanity and he didn't even notice.

I felt it again, the sensation, the impulse, Trio was more Akrid than human. Everything slowed down, Trio raising his right arm to kill me, Violet's tears, everything. This is what he meant by I was a demon, demons have demonic abilities. But I felt proud to call myself an angel for some reason.

I pulled up one leg and connected my foot with his chin. He flew into the air in slow motion, or at least it seemed like that. I dropped off the wall and ducked under him grabbing his wrist. I wanted him to feel the pain he just put me through, so I slammed him into the wall after spinning around.

I pressed my assault rifle to his shoulder and held down the trigger wasting all the ammo. Blood splattered on the wall and dripped to the floor as Trio screamed and roared in pain. It was a soothing graceful sound, the screams of pain with the repeating beat of the instrument of death. Once the gun stopped firing I pushed it threw his arm and jumped back.

"When…When did you.. When did you become an angel of pain." Trio shouted dropping to the floor holding his arm.

"Shut up."

Trio jumped forward and I easily ducked under him pulling out both of my magnums and shot up his legs. He dropped to the ground and rolled as his legs bled a green blood. The same blood of an Akrid, the blood I want spilled.

I fired two more shots at his back and he moved at a hyper speed. The Akrid in him was becoming active, but it was just making him an easier target. I follower every movement he made and shot directly at him barely missing. One bullet missed, that one bullet flew into the wall and flew it into the next room. Hitting the Akrid goddess on the other side known as Eve.

The wall vibrated, we stopped all activities and watched as the wall cracked. The door blew open and hell poured out of it in the shape of Akrid known as Kane and able. I wasn't scared, afraid, not even worried. Something in me said burn them all, I did.

I raised one hand and it felt like it was on fire, then it actually set to flames. A stream of fire shot form my hands and covered the door. Once it was over, I felt cold. Trio tried to sneak up behind me, but I knew he was there and finished this.

"Die." I spun around and raised my magnum to his left I eye. He growled slightly before I pulled the trigger, ending the problem.

Violet passed out back when I shot off his human arm. So I didn't need to worry about Akrid going after her. They only attack anything they see move. I ran through the burning doorway still feeling that strange sense of destruction. I ran in the room and saw what was supposed to be Eve.

There was no room to fly so it stood on its legs facing me. I grabbed my plasma rifle slowly and slid it out of my coat watching ever movement it made. I'm still feeling strange, every one of my senses seemed to become stronger, and I even felt stronger and lighter than before.

Pulling out my rifle, slowly, I raised it and pointed at the head of Eve. I waited for a second, I waited for it to exhale, and once it did I fired. A flurry of red beams of plasma flew from the barrel and hit Eve in its left eye. It roared, shaking the building as green blood poured from its eye.

Its head tilted back and I saw a green fog begin to build inside. I closed the door and spun around looking for an escape route from whatever it was about to do. I dashed for the steps to my right and ran up them quickly, mist stays low to the ground, so I found a way up.

Eve jumped forward blowing out a giant cloud of something, which I soon realized was acid. The walls were made of special material to resist it but the supports that held up the stairs started to melt away.

"Shit." I shouted as the steps behind me fell.

I jumped the bars onto the platform that was attached to the wall and saw something that was going to save my butt. A T-eng spot, the only T-eng spot was on Eve's back. Only thing I had to do was get on top, hold on, drop a bomb, and get off and the mission'll be done.

"Now I need a way to get on top." The acidic fog covered the entire floor so I had to drop on top of it.

I looked down at Eve and noticed it was charging electricity in its stinger. It's only an infected Raibion that grew to giant size. Lightning bolts shot off from the stinger and blasted random points in the room. One of them shot the platform I was on tumbling it. Some strange thought in my head told me to jump, so I did.

I crouched down and felt a strange burning sensation in my legs. When I pushed up I was launched threw the air and grabbed hold of the support beams on the ceiling. I couldn't jump that high or that far, maybe, just maybe, Trio was right.

"No." I'm going to believe it was just an excessive amount of adrenaline. But before I walked into the room, the Akrid that came out, I burned them all. It's not possible I imagined that.

Another zap of electricity hit the bar I was standing on and I leaped to the next one. I looked down and saw the distance between Eve and me. Then I realized I've found a way to get on top of it. I stood on the bar and leaned over hopping to the next one.

A low humming noise stopped me in my tracks and I looked up to see a hive. Reaching in my coat, I pulled out a disk grenade and threw it directly in the beehive that was made of a thick wood-like material. After diving past two supports the grenade exploded dropping a load of metal and concrete on Eve's thorax, or I think that's the thorax.

The debris crashed down and it roared in pain, causing its stinger to cease-fire. Now was my chance, I had to dive off of the ceiling, land on Eve, and blow all my ammo or until it died. So I did exactly as the plan explained.

I stood directly up and simply tipped over falling, descending, like a bird of prey. I reached in my coat and pulled out a combat energy knife and held it. The low buzzing of the plasma energy flowing through the knife was the noise I focused on, everything else was tuned out.

When I drew close I extended my arm and slashed at the pouch. T-eng splashed out and flew directly on me. Quickly reaching in my coat I pulled out the shotgun I stole from Trio and was about to pull the trigger until I saw her. A woman, maybe in her mid twenties, was insde the pouch.

There was a human inside of an Akrid. I couldn't leave her there; Eve was pushing away the debris so I quickly got to work. Slashing the pouch again, I reached inside and grabbed the woman and pulled her out. She was drenched in T-eng and had a piece of equipment on her right arm.

"A harmonizer." I said in shock. That was a rare but legendary piece of equipment, who exactly did I just find?

"Kill it." She mumbled and I knew she was alive.

With her still in one arm, I whipped out the shot gun and pulled the trigger as many times as I could. Thermal energy shot out of it like a fountain and Eve let out a bone-chilling screech. After a few pointless pulls I realized the shotgun was out of ammo and Eve was still alive.

The building tremored as Eve flapped its wings slowly. I put the woman on my shoulder and jumped off landing on one knee on the ground and carried her away. I dashed to the wall and laid her against it. She coughed a little before falling into a deep sleep.

"Son of a bitch." I stood up, spun around, pulled out to semi-autos, and held down the trigger letting out all of the ammo into Eve's head.

It jumped into the air and smashed against the ceiling bringing down rubble. I saw how furious it was acting and figured out it was trying to escape. For the sake of my paycheck and how much trouble this thing caused me I was going to prevent that. I fired full-force reloading with great speed; I was so focused on shooting I didn't realize the lightning bolt it shot at me.

That hurt, badly. I flew back and slammed into the wall twitching occasionally. The ceiling crumbled as Eve slammed against it. It touched down on the ground and flapped its wings once with amazing force. It collided with the ceiling and blew a hole threw it, escaping.

It took me a little while to regain my consciousness, but when I did it was silent. Violet was apparently still in the other room and the woman with a harmonizer was just lying there. She was awake, but she laid there staring into space, probably thnking about how it felt to be inside an Akrid.

I slowly stood up and walked over to her. I leaned over and she looked up at me with a quick glance. Apparently, she was paralyzed for the moment; she was in a good physical so she'd probably be able to move later.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"B..Basil." She coughed out.

"Excuse me."

"My name is Basil."

"Hi Basil, I'm Riax and I'll be your savior today." She laughed before coughing some more. I looked around for Violet and saw her standing against a wall.

"Violet." She looked up at me and that made it harder seeing the worried look on her face "I'm sorry about Trio." I said pitifully.

"I know, but don't worry Riax, we'll find him soon." What is that supposed to mean.

"What?" I ran towards the door and opened.

Nothing, the only thing left of Trio in this room was blood splattered on the wall and his arm. He couldn't have gotten away. I shot him straight in the eye from point-blank range. No human could survive anything like that.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"N..Nothing." I said.

I lied, and this lie was going to come back to get me. He was dead, I was sure he was dead. I glanced at Violet and she looked normal but still a stressed. I was most likely out for a while giving her time to come back to her senses.

"I should be the one apoligizing. I fainted and left you here to fight Eve alone."

"Eve" I shouted looking back.

It escaped; the hole in the ceiling had snow falling inside. I looked over at Basil and planned on questioning her but now wasn't the time.

"Hey, Basil can you walk?" I shouted. She looked over at me and laughed like an injured soldier. "I guess that means no."

"Leave me here. Umbrella soldiers will be coming soon and I'll just slow you down." Basil said while trying to move her hand.

"Sorry, can't do that. I've fought NEVEC before so these Umbrella guys won't be much different. You're coming."

"If you think Umbrella and NEVEC are on the same level you're mistaken kid."

Violet pulled up a watch and began pressing buttons. She looked up at me and nodded saying she activated the walker and it was ready to move. Only thing we had to do was get out of here. But then a friend showed up and behind him more 'friends'.

"Get ready." Devil Thunder descended from the hole that Eve made and landed in the snow under it. He rolled out and pulled out two handguns that resembled mini-plasma rifles. I flipped out the two semi-autos and loaded them.

"Violet get Basil." Violet ran over and picked her up on one shoulder. "What's going on?" I shouted to Thunder.

"Umbrella's here." He spun around and pointed both guns at the hole he came threw. I did the same and waited expecting something like NEVEC soldiers.

That's what I expected but not what I got. Two Vital Suits dropped down and pointed their guns at us. They were the average VS with two guns and no arms. Thunder pressed down on the trigger to his gun showing us how he earned his title.

It was like a ball of compressed sound. It's strange, it looked like a ball of glass but it was sound. Every shot brought out a loud boom. When they hit the VS it would push the suit back and dent it. I came back to my senses and did what I did best.

I realized the semi-autos wouldn't work so I pulled out my plasma rifle and fired. The red laser left a burn mark on the VS and I kept firing at the cockpit. Eventually, both of the Vital Suits exploded.

"We have to go now." Devil Thunder ordered. He turned towards me and ran past. I walked backwards shooting the soldiers as they dropped threw the hole.

There was too many. For every one I dropped two more showed up. I backed up against the wall avoiding the shots from their machine guns and dashed towards the door. Thunder was at the door shooting and waiting for me to catch up.

"Damn it. Their good." I said.

"I told you Umbrella was better than NEVEC." Basil said still being held up by Violet.

"Go, I'll hold them back." I said.

"You can't do that. She just said they…" Thunder shouted at me before I cut him off.

"Thunder, take Basil and get out of here. Violet follow Thunder and listen to him. I'll catch up." I sounded like a true hero at the moment. An Umbrella soldier slammed against the door trying to break it down. "Go." They left.

I walked in front of the door and pulled out both semi-autos. They continued trying to push down the door not knowing I was on the other side. I raised both guns and fired at the door killing off the soldiers on the other side. They kicked down the door and charged in shooting.

I expected them to do that so I tossed a thermal detonator before the pushed it down. Once they started shooting the grenade exploded covering the door in a large flame and torching some of the soldiers. I ran towards the emergecy stairs while blasting to keep them from getting me.

I tackled the door and started up the stairs instantly.

"Riax." Violet shouted wondering if it was me. I started up the stairs and shot the control panel on the door activating the auto-lock.

"Move faster, the lock isn't going to hold." I heard a soldier ram against the door and back away from it as I continued up the stairs.

"Timber." One of them said as a joke. The door shot in and crashed against the wall letting soldiers charge into the room.

"Riax we're half way there." Thunder shouted at me firing over the edge. His sound bullets impacted and almost completely destroyed the flight of step I was on.

"Seize Raphael and Uriel." I looked down and saw a commander shouting to the rest of the soldiers. He looked up at me and for a second it seemed like we've hated each other for a lifetime.

"Raphael." He mouthed looking at me.

"Leon." I said in awe.

He reached in his suit and pulled out a magnum pistol with an Umbrella on both sides of the barrel and handle. He pointed it directly at me and pulled the trigger. Time slowed down once again and I decided to use this for my advantage.

I leaned over to my right and pulled out a magnum myself. Once the bullet moved past I fired three shots directly at Leon. I thought I had him until I realized he was moving at the same speed I was. Leon raised his empty left hand and showed off the glove on his hand. It had a glowing Umbrella symbol on the back of his hand.

A larger Umbrella symbol appeared in front of him made of light. The bullets disintergrated as soon as they came into contact with his shield. When he was done with it, the shield disappeared piece by piece. All of the soldiers began to move again after stopping to see if Leon survived the brief attack.

"Shit, move they have shields." I shouted at the rest, when I looked up they already reached the top floor and were shooting at the soldiers that guarded the floor.

"Grab this" Devil Thunder leaned over a rail and fired his grappling hook. It latched into the wall and I grabbed the string ripping it out. "Hold on." He shouted retracting the cable.

I jumped off of the steps and was dragged to the top floor. I shot as the soldiers ran under me and fired. If they didn't miss by an inch I shot them before they pulled the trigger. When I came close to the rail I jumped off onto the wall on the opposite side and leaped to the other side. A bullet flew past and barely grazed my arm but put a small cut.

I flew over the rest of them and pressed against a wall when I touched down on the ground. Violet was hacking into a control panel, Basil was sitting there bored, strangely, and Thunder was shooting at the soldiers before they got up here.

"It's open." I dived around the corner once she opened and pressed against a wall. I heard two Umbrella soldiers getting ready for us to show up so I to make my attack quick.

I swapped out for the machine guns and leaned around the corner. Lucky me, most of the soldiers had their backs turned so I dropped at least six of them out of twelve. The other soldiers returned fire and I noticed how organized they were.

Even though I just laid out six of their allies. The rest kept their cool and got into position. Some of them dived forward on one knee and fired while the others stood behind them aiming and waiting. There was a loud thunderous boom coming from behind me and the Umbrella soldiers called for backup.

I felt Thunder's hand on my shoulder telling me that he blew up the steps. Violet was slowly losing her composure; she backed up against the wall and tried to calm down. Basil passed out again and Devil Thunder simply decided to carry her.

I twisted around and shot two soldiers.

"They're pulling out but we have to leave. They'll send an army later." Thunder said to me.

"Fine, let's get out of here." I dove from around the wall and fired everywhere. The remaining Umbrella guards dropped and the others ran from the corner and made there way to the walker.

I stopped running and turned around. I heard roars, an Akrid war cry almost, they were coming. I knew somehow that there were two Gorechryatis, an army of at least ten normal Chryatis, and something else. The Akrid leading this attack was an infected Gorechryatis called Hellchryatis.

"Hurry the fuck up." I boomed. This feeling told me that the Akrid were here to kill the large amount of humans in this place, which included us.

As we ran my body felt cold. It's strange because I was born on E.D.N III; my body was resistant to the cold. I didn't need thermal energy to survive, but occasionally I did need to get out of the below zero temperatures. The strange feelings I was getting, the ones that let me detect Akrid, began to give me a serious headache.

Every one turned right and charged out of the front door and dashed to the walker. Devil Thunder ran the fastest knowing Basil's life was in his hands, literally. He was caring a woman across a frozen desert. I ran through the hole in the glass that used to be a door and jogged across the snow. I looked to my right and saw the Akrid that I sensed.

Exactly as I thought, an army of seventeen Chryatis, following two Gorechryatis lieutenants. And they all followed General Hellchryatis, the biggest and strongest out of all of them. The army marched towards the Arklay research facility within destructive intentions. We had to leave before they noticed us.

As I ran to the walker I thought of how dangerous an infected Akrid really was. Besides becoming larger and stronger, they became smarter, smart enough to start a colony and give the colony an army. They were a true danger, their T-eng changed black and became poisonous even though it was a better energy source than normal Thermal energy.

"I'm taking us back to Paradise Solo." Violet said as she ran into the walker's hangar. She took Basil with her so she could get into some good clothes.

"What…The…Fuck." I dropped to my knees and took deep, heavy, painful breaths. My chest tightened and I realized how much pain was going through my body. My vision became blurry, the headache grew and I was starting to fade out.

"Shit, they're getting better." Thunder said as he sat down in a chair at the desk. I reagined focus and dropped to the cold, hard, metal floor. I really don't feel like moving.

"What's going on?" Thunder looked at me and sighed.

"You probably know by now that this company Umbrella is like NEVEC, right. But the difference between them is that Umbrella is a secret company that works mostly on bio-weaponry."

"How did you figure this out?" I'm not going to listen to this information and not know where he got it.

"That cult I was investigating, it was Umbrella collecting DNA traces of Green eye. I hacked into one of the mainframes and learned about their plan to kill you in the facility. Then I came here, that's all I know." There was still one thing that was bothering me.

"So you ran from the Green eye's grave all the way here?" He jumped back in surprise.

"…No, I stole one of their VS and came but they shot it so I ran the rest." We looked at each other for a minute.

"Fine by me." I slowly stood up and walked over to my room. After all this shit I deserved a rest. When I wake up, that's when we'll talk to Basil to hear her story.

The door slid open and Violet stepped in the room. She closed the door slowly and sat on my bed next to. The look on her face told me she had a lot on her mind. I didn't have all the answers but who on this walker did, Basil maybe.

"Riax, Trio said that you're a…an angel. What does that mean?" I wasn't sure honestly.

"I don't know, the infection must've made him start to imagine things. He said I was a monster, then an angel, he was confused."

"But maybe that's why you've been acting strangely on missions more recently." I drowned her out, the more I thought about it. Trio was right.

Nothing about me was normal. I can survive without T-eng, constant rushes of adrenaline, I was physically exceptional, and the fire when I killed those Akrid. I couldn't tell Violet about any of that, not yet at least.

"And this was all my fault, if I never let you two go through with that deal none of this would've never happened." Violet continued. I've forgotten about the deal. "Why was that deal so important, it was about me and.."

"What you don't realize is that we both love you." Shit, I didn't want to say that.

Her eyes widened and a small smile grew on her face. She giggled when she say me slap my head for saying that out loud. At least I cheered her up. She stood up and walked out of the room.

"I'll wake you up when Basil does. Alright." She giggled and walked out of the room.

I slammed my head into the pillow and lay there. My overall summary of the day, it sucked. Then another problem came to mind.

"Shit, Eve escaped." That means no million dollar paycheck for me anytime soon.


	5. The Fall of Eve

"Riax, Riax get up. Basil's awake." A familiar voice echoed into my head. I didn't want to, but duty calls.

"I'm up, damn it. Where are we?" I rolled out of the bed and swiped a pistol off of the desk. Who knows what kind of issues Basil had.

I stood up straight and fixed my coat then proceeded to leave the room. I exited my personal room and walked into the meeting room. In the center of the room was a map surrounded by four chairs. Violet and Thunder sat on the sides of the table while Basil sat at the head. The fourth chair was open and the others stared directly at me waiting.

"I'll start this conversation by saying thanks. If it wasn't for you I'd still be apart of that experiment." Basil said first. I dropped down lazily and slammed my head on the table giving her a thumbs up.

"Alright, Basil and Thunder. You to have the answers and we need information so. Violet." I said giving her the signal to start the investigation, she nodded and listened.

"We need to know why Umbrella attacked us." Violet said and waited for one of the two to respond.

"I said this before, they were planning on getting Riax killed by Eve. But when fortunately, he survived. And that's as much as I know." Thunder turned to Basil to see if she had more answers but she remained silent.

"Basil, how did you end up here?" Violet asked. This was the routine we used to question people on jobs when we needed info. I'd sit back and listen while Violet calmly asked questions.

"It's a long story for another time, but the truth is I had nothing to do with Umbrella." A statement like that made me nervous, she had secrets. Something I really didn't want in this situation. "I don't know how I ended up inside Eve either."

"Basil, do you have a son?" I asked. I remembered what I read inside of the journal and it came to mind. I just only hoped this wasn't an emotional subject.

"I used to but, he's dead." The room grew silent and every one felt the tension in the air. Thunder changed the mood quickly.

"Riax, who gave you this mission. They had to be working for Umbrella." Thunder leaned back in his chair and brushed back his hair. Like the rest of us, he was stressed.

"The General, that's all the info that I got. But when we get back to Solo, Vermillion is going to answer a few questions." I said tightening my grip on the pistol I had under the table. "Seraph, how close are we to Solo?" I shouted.

Seraph links occasionally to the trailer and operates it. The table we were sitting at flashed and projected a virtual map. The blue marker displayed our position, green was the previous destination, and red marked the current.

"It's going to take a while, to avoid the Akrid I had to go around the mountains instead of through the pass. So chill out." Seraph said through the intercom. He basically hacked into the trailer which Vermillion hated when he received the repair bill.

"Neat, my VS can't hack into stuff but I've decked it up. I'll show you later." Thunder said while checking out the map.

"I'm not feeling so well so I'll be going." Basil said walking out of the room. She looked pale but I'm guessing that's what happens when you're a piece of an Akrid for god knows how long.

"I guess I'll leave you two alone. I'll be in you weapons locker if you need me." Thunder said standing up. He walked out of the room after punching me in the shoulder and saying good luck.

"Fuck you." He's a good fighter and really cool but he's too smart. I don't like people reading me, it's annoying.

I stood up and almost kicked over the chair in the process. All this shit was happening all of a sudden and I'm getting dragged into the middle of it. If Umbrella's as powerful as Basil and Thunder said they were, NEVEC was sure to follow. This meant that I'm going to be shooting more and sleeping less. I ran my fingers through my hair and honestly wanted to rip it out.

"I'm sorry, none of us saw this coming." Violet said. I watched her through the reflections in the window and she was watching me closely.

"How could we, William had to know something. He gave us the mission, he had to know." This was beginning to piss me off. I had two ways of looking at my situation.

The first was through the team leader perspective. I lost a member on a mission that we failed. We were also attacked by Umbrella which we know nothing about. They were also conducting experiments involving mixing people with Akrid. And the person I work for I can't trust.

The other way is through my personal opinion but it's worse. My friend that's been on my team for my entire life turned into an Akrid and ran. I ripped a person out of an Akrid and saved her from Umbrella. Both Umbrella and NEVEC are after us. And Violet's going through her own problems after realizing Trio's her brother.

"It's alright, Trio's out there some where. And I'm positive William's still on our side. Any problems we have with Umbrella or NEVEC, we can get help from the other hunters." I have to admit. Hearing her voice tell me this actually helped, it just seemed to make everything better.

"But all this happened just because…" I started saying but Violet cut me off.

"Because you love me, correct." I didn't know what to say. She knew it was true and so did I. "Even though you didn't exactly win the bet, you still love me." Damn it. Why can't she leave my feelings out of this.

"It's not just that, there's other things like. Other stuff and things." Shit, I have no clue on what I'm trying to say. It's like I'm trying to make something out of fucking nothing here.

"I need to know the answer for sure. Do you love me?" She said in a strange voice. I could tell that this was important to her.

It took me a second to answer. I had to think this through and predict the outcomes. One of them was she completely shut me out while the other was everything worked out. It was a big risk but something inside burned and needed to get out.

"Yes, the deal me and Trio made was mostly out of jealousy, pride, and love. Trio wanted to have a straight shoot out… but we couldn't do that." I felt strangely relieved, but then there was this strange guilt that was there.

There was a moment of silence as both of us took in the conversation. Things were happening too fast for average people but we learned to react on time, even in this kind of situation.

"I'm detecting strange readings coming from you two. Is everything good." Seraph said. I spun around and was about to shoot the speaker but Violet responded.

"What kind of readings?" She asked just curious.

"Both of your bodies are releasing an unusually large amount of hormones. Riax's blood pressure is increasing and Violet's."

"Shut up robot." Violet shouted. I wasn't sure what he was about to say next but apparently she didn't want him to say it.

"Violet." I said in curious tone.

"It's nothing." She answered quickly and looked away.

"Violet. What is it." A small smile crept on my face.

"It's, nothing. I'm going to go see if Basil's good." She stood up and quickly made her way out of the room. I could've simply asked Seraph what the readings were, but that'd be mean.

I looked back out of the window with that devious grin still on my face. Things were bad, obviously, but there's still a few positives in all of this. One of them being that even though Trio is missing, he's not dead, and the bonus, a possibility of finding him. But there's still the chance he wants me dead.

"Damn it, Seraph. Why can't we live a normal life without people hunting us constantly." Honestly, I wanted to know what the VS had to say about this.

"I remember you saying that normal was boring, Riax." That was not the answer I was expecting.

"Fuck you, Seraph."

"That's physically impossible and I'm also programmed to be male so it'd also be…" I cut him off not wanting to hear any more.

"Shut up robot." It's funny because Violet just said exactly that.

The silence hung in the air once again. It pissed me off that when everything goes down hill no one has anything to say or any answers. Unfortunately, I'm tossed into the middle of everything with no answers but too many questions. There was one question that clawed at my mind and memory.

"Seraph, check all journal logs I've made and start a search." A blue screen appeared in front of my face and went through all of the logs I placed into Seraph's memory. Each one specifically marked, only a few were important, others were just mission records. Damn things, had to make on after every mission.

"What exactly am I searching for." I looked through the title of entry as Seraph asked. I couldn't find it, where the hell do I know that name from.

"Scan for a Leon, and an Umbrella." There had to be some clue that I've seen before. Anything, a sign or even just this one name would work.

"Sorry, Riax. No results for Leon, or Umbrella." Damn it, this can't be happening at once. There has to be another clue. "But I did find something of use that might be on topic."

"What is it." Finally, some good news.

"The large Akrid that escaped from the Arklay is heading this direction. My senses say that it's been following us for quite some time now." Seraph finished talking and actually left me with something good to think about. "Your silence tells me that me and you got a job to do."

"For a machine, your smart." I said picking up my coat and tossing it on in one swift movement. A quick twirl and I was ready to go outside and take on Eve.

"It escaped once Seraph, but this time. It's dead." I walked over to the door and simply punched the panel. It opened the door so I had nothing to worry about. Turning left brought me face to face with Violet.

"Where are you going." I'm not sure why she asked. We're in the trailer, it's either my room or outside.

"I need you to switch the trailer into manual and drive. Eve decided to come back." I stopped in front of her and waited for the response. It was either a lecture or a panic attack.

She tilted down her head and stared at the metal floor for a while. I'm know me leaving to go fight now hurts, but taking down Eve might just get us somewhere. What's worse is that I don't know how powerful Eve can really be. The last run in I had with that giant Akrid, both of us were restricted by the building. Now that I have Seraph and space to move, things are going to be even.

"What's wrong, everything is going to be alright this time. With Seraph, I'll take down Eve in no time." I couldn't leave her here in worry, even though I'm leaving to fight. There had to be something of use to say. "Trust me this time."

"All right, but if your not back soon. I'm turning the trailer around to get you." Thank you Violet for understanding. I gave her a swift but loving hug and dashed towards the equipment room.

It was a quick and easy decision, I grabbed a grappling hook, two rapid-fire handguns, and a little item I've been wanting to use for a while. Just in case I got into close quarters combat with any thing ranging from Akrid to NEVEC, I had this for the situation.

It was a originally called the sword of Goujian, but I remember finding it inside of a NEVEC facility. They were trying to develop swords for their soldiers but I stole the prototype after raiding a facility. It's cool, they outlined the blade with a plasma edge so it packs a better punch but the charge is unstable. It's like a bike almost, if you rev the gear too much, the things going to explode. But the sword simply overloads and zaps every thing, including me.

"Seraph, disconnect from the trailer and link to the VS." I opened the next door and tapped a few buttons on the panel across the room opening the hanger. Holy shit, was that a wave of freezing cold.

I took a few steps backwards and covered my face. After my body adjusted to the new climate, I easily jumped backwards into the open cockpit of Seraph and landed directly in the comfortable, leather, seats. There's no problem with fighting in luxury.

"I recommend you try not to draw too much attention. We are still under pursuit by the Umbrella soldiers" A screen appeared as Seraph told me this. I saw everything outside and a lot of other technical stuff that I can't describe. You get the picture.

"Shit, I'll Eve blow Eve out of the sky in a second. It won't take me long. Activate Dual chain-guns." I leaned back and waited for Violet's OK to pull off.

"Give me a sec…done. All link cables are disabled and…" I waited for a second for Violet too finish. With a quick glimpse outside I noticed she didn't slow down the trailer making pulling off a little harder. "Sorry, I can't slow down without shutting down all engines and if we do that. Eve's going to be over the trailer in a second."

"Fine, let's go Seraph."

"Go, Riax."

I pushed the gear to an extreme length for a starting speed and shot out of the hanger. For that quick second in air, I activated the reverse and jump boosts to get a good landing. The pressure inside was amazing, I've never done a start off so fast and had to pull a landing out of a trailer already going over ninety-miles.

The impact on the ground shot me forward in the chair and I pushed up on the boosts to move forward for a quick start. The force slammed me back against the chair but it was comfy so I was good. Everything was blurry for a moment, the snow blocked the screen, I was in a slight daze, and I started Seraph off pretty quickly.

"Nice move, just don't do it again." I smiled evilly as Seraph warned me against that kind of start. It was fun, so what, and it was the start we needed.

"Sure, whatever. Now let's find our target." My eyes quickly shifted towards the radar and I spotted the major T-eng deposit. A quick turn to the right put me in the right direction and I leaned forward hitting the thrusters. "Found it."

It was huge compared to some of the other Akrid I've put down. It was like the butterfly form of an Undeep, just not as graceful as a butterfly. It resembled a Raibion more now, especially since it just raised its stinger and the lightning was easily seen.

"It's on, Eve." I raised the chain guns and fired a few rounds. They missed and Eve launched the bolt at me. I dashed left and continued boosting forward firing more.

The impact pushed the VS over slightly but not much to throw me off. Then I picked up something I didn't see before, another weak spot. Weak spots actually. There was one large spot on its stomach opposite of the one on its back. There were four more, each at the base of it's wings.

"Activate Grenade launcher." I commanded Seraph and he did. Four large explosives flew towards Eve and it reacted by descending closer to the ground and coming at me. This wasn't good.

If Eve and Seraph collided, Eve would easily blow me away. If I moved out of the way now, it'd simply follow and I'd be on the run. I had a plan but once again, it was a work or die idea. I adjusted both of the grenade launchers and locked them on two specific spots waiting for a moment.

"What are you doing?" Both Seraph and Violet asked. It looked like a suicide attempt seeing how I started to go faster once Eve started to charge directly at me. It raised its stinger and flew even faster, this was starting to look like a joust.

"Give me a second." If they don't shut up it isn't going to work. Eve wasn't close, but it was at a medium distance and I had to fire now.

I blew four grenades at the top of its wings, they dropped in the air and landed directly on the weak spots where its wings attached. With a loud thud and a wall of snow and ice. Eve smashed against the ground and dragged across like a giant wall of snow raging towards me. I fired two more shots into the center of the wall and it hit with a great impact.

"Seraph, take auto control and hit Full boost in reverse." I shouted flipping a switch on the front. This was the most dangerous part of the plan.

"Sure thing."

The latch to the front of the VS opened and the chill hit full force. The incredible speed I was going at directly towards the Akrid slammed me against the back of the seat and knocked the breath out of me. I held in what little of oxygen that's left and prepared myself.

"Now." I shouted and Seraph obeyed. He hit the reverse boosts and I was lunged directly out of my seat and into the air. For a moment, everything slowed down and seemed graceful, it wasn't that strange rush I got. But just the average adrenaline, boost that every one has. Shit, I really need that rush at this moment though.

The sword flew out of my coat and I caught it before it was out of my reach. Man, that thing is huge. I looked down and saw the massive alien on the ground squirming as it attempted to stand up. I pulled out the blade, activated the plasma edge, and leaned forward diving directly towards it.

This whole thing was going perfectly, hell, the best plan I've had in so long. But then I forgot something, something very important. The average Raibion grew back its wings in a few minutes. Eve, was a G-class experiment. It's wings erupted from its back and started flapping at incredible speeds. This plan went from landing on and taking it out, to holding of for my life and bringing it down.

It rose up directly as I fell and I landed on top of it. The impact of hitting Eve as it rose and falling threw the air at incredible speeds hurt. I flattened against the leather armored skin of this giant monster and I swear, one of my ribs just broke. I tried to rise up but I slipped and rolled down its figure.

The blade in my right hand flickered and disappeared as I stabbed into the skin of Eve and stopping my movement. I looked what I thought was up and realized I rolled all the way down this fucking thing and stabbed it in the ass, or stinger. The wind pressed down on me preventing any sort of movement. So now, I just had to sit there helpless.

"What the hell do you think your doing." Devil shouted at me using the communicator. I laughed, he finally figured out what's going on and I guess he knows where I am.

"Doing something that I really shouldn't." Hah, now that was so true it was funny. He laughed using the Hunter's sense of humor, laugh in the face of death. Literally.

"Why didn't you ask for help, Kid." He joked.

"Somebody was taking a nap, Old man." I heard Violet shout after she used a tracker to pick up my position.

"He's on top of the Akrid." She shouted, that's hilarious.

"I got to go, it's not looking that good on my end." I didn't wait to hear his next comment. If I did, I'm sure to face Violet's wrath. Once I clicked off the com, stupid thing fell out of my ear and plunged hundreds of feet to the ground.

Shit, the only word that crossed my mind. I'm in so much Shit when I get back…if I get back. I pulled out a pistol and gripped it tightly, I'm not losing this. I fired a few shots but it was pointless, small bullets wouldn't do much to this thing.

Eve moved its wings violently stopping its ascension but not mine. I flew up in the air for a few more feet then landed on its back once again. It tried to shake me off but I pierced the sword through its skin and held tight. It stopped shaking and now's the time I take this thing out.

"Stop complaining and take it like a man, or Akrid. Whatever the fuck you are." How can you tell if an Akrid is male or female…never mind, I don't want to know. I'm guessing Eve's a female because of the name, and the hive I blew up.

I pulled myself up and got on my feet, finally. The constant flapping of its wings going a hyper speeds made the thing vibrate so it was hard to stand. I got over it and pulled out the sword, then I had an idea. It was going to look cool, work, and I could have a load of fun. But it's probably going to kill me, like the rest of my ideas.

I ran across Eve's back at a slight angle and pulled out four disk grenades. Two in each hand, one for each wing. I tossed all of them in a way so they'd stick to each of the wings and detonate, blowing off the wings, again. I dashed past the first pair of wings and then, boom.

The blazing heat rose behind me as I past the second pair of wings. The flashing red lights on the thermal energy spots told me that this thing was going down, and I'm on top of it. This was fun, I couldn't stay on top because my next action would have me run over its head, leap off the front, throw three thermal grenades, and then shoot Eve in the eyes.

And that's exactly what I did, I reached the top of Eve's head and placed both feet together. Then, I pushed myself over the edge by leaping over and rolling in mid-air pulling three grenades out of my coat and just tossing them. I finished the plan by pulling out the semi-auto and firing as much as possible. But that's where the plan went down hill, in a sense.

Time slowed down once again as they rush hit me. I saw it, the last bullet I fired flew out of the pistol and towards Eve. But then I noticed that it came up directly behind a grenade and Oh, Shit came to mind a second later. There was a small spark, then came a wall of heat then pure flame that sent me flying through the air.

OK, situation, evaluation. I'm flying hundreds of feet above the ground with a giant flaming explosion behind me. I have not one single idea about how to survive the fall but I'm pretty sure Eve's dead. And I'm also in this strange adrenaline rush that kicks in at the perfect moments. My situation looks…better than usual.

I flipped around and shot the grappling hook at the back of eve as it descended to the ground. The pull almost ripped my arm off but I was dragged down along with Eve as the cable retracted pulling me closer. I looked at its head and smiled, that had to hurt like hell. I flipped over and pressed against Eve planting my feet on its back so we I faced the ground and I noticed one thing.

When a plane falls, it goes down and descends at an angle because it has moving forward. But Eve was going directly up so when I brought it down, it went as I said, Directly down. I was staring the snow covered ground as Eve drew closer and closer every minute. This was looking bad, I know it. Things could get worse, but I hope they don't. There was no chance I was going to survive on top of Eve. I just couldn't be falling straight down without anything under me so I had an idea.

"Fly"

I don't know what the Fuck gave me that idea. And I was pretty sure I couldn't do it, but a burning feeling on my spine said I could. So I tried, what is there to lose besides my life… and that's a lot now that I think about it. So I simply pushed off Eve's back and leaned forward expecting a miracle but everything grew dark and I heard… Voices.

"The DNA fusion is complete sir. He'll become a grand soldier, an equal to Gabriel." A familiar voice said. I wasn't sure what's going on, who's Gabriel?

"Gabriel is unstable, unpredictable, undeniably powerful. Even a rumor of being sent after him sends chills down the soldiers spines." A deep and thunderous came after, it was the same voice from before.

"Sir, maybe its because his host is…" The voice ticked at my memory but nothing was there.

"His host, is gone. Gabriel is now a product, no, child of Umbrella Corporation. He represents our intelligence and power, his strength is the icon of our ability. The pinnacle of my dream, followed by the six other shadows of success." It sounded like the man was worshipping whoever Gabriel was.

"As long as I can see to the production of my Hell Spawn, General. It does not matter if they are mentally stable, or if they are morally balanced. They are the children of my mind." Wait, so that other person is the General, the one who sent me on the mission after Eve. And who do I know that says Hell Spawn.

"Correct Dr. Z. It doesn't matter. But where you fail is claiming as the children of your mind." Z, Dr. Z worked with the General. How, he's just a crazy scientist. There as a clicking noise, a gun.

"What are you doing, General. With out me, Raphael shall never be complete." Z shouted, I knew what was going. It wasn't that hard to understand a betrayal.

"That is where you fail, Z. He is already finished." I heard a slight tug on the trigger.

"You didn't, you bastard." Then there was a bang and everything went silent.

That was more confusing than the other dreams. It didn't give me any answers, just leads on where to look. I have three places, the green eye grave, Vermilion, and now I have to check Z. Knowing the doctor, I'll probably have to beat it out of him, fine by me.

I opened my eyes and saw a big wall of white in front of me. The last thing you wanted to see before you hit the ground is, well, the ground. I had the feeling it would've been a better idea to keep my eyes closed but it was too late. I'm in for a serious impact.

"…"

"…" What the hell is that noise.

Is…on…Fire" Fire, what's going on. It sounds like Violet, but how.

I tried to move, open my eyes but everything on me was sore. I laid there for a minute, what else can I do. My right arm felt like it wasn't even attached but that was because of me using the grappling hook on Eve.

"He's…up…tell…dead." Oh crap, what's that supposed to mean. Things were clearing up a little, not much. But at least my head didn't feel like I was hit by a 18-wheeler. Instead of waiting for them to wake me up, I decided to just do it myself.

"That hurt like a bitch." I laughed at the end, it did. Every one in the room jumped, I could tell by the sudden shift in chairs and a gasp from, I'm guessing Basil. With a slight struggle, I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling.

Or at least what I saw of the ceiling. Violet almost blocked out the entire view of the metal tiles. Her cheeks were a bright red and her eyes were bloodshot, next to her Basil leaned back in the chair. And Thunder was standing by the window looking outside at something closely.

"Riax your alive." She dropped down on me and squeezed me. But I guess she didn't notice my shoulder was in pain. I hugged her close then felt her shoulders tighten. A small warning that she was about to lose her temperature.

"What the hell was that. When you said you were going to bring down Eve, you didn't say that you were going to get on top of it and bring it down from the sky." She shouted, but I smiled. It was that childish, playful, smile that said "relax, its all good." Lucky me it worked. Her temper lowered and the same smile came to her face.

"Sorry, I couldn't think of a better plan. But on the plus side, Eve's dead and we get paid, and I also have something to do when we get back to Paradise Solo." Z, Vermilion, and the Green eye grave, three things I need to investigate to get info on Umbrella.

"I never would've thought of actually getting on top of that thing. Smart move, or just crazy." Thunder said in his normal relaxed voice. I flipped over the sheets and sat up ignoring the pain. With a quick few steps, I looked out of the window and saw a giant flame in the distance. It was Eve, or its still burning ashes. "Whatever made you do it, it worked so no complaints here."

"None here either, I've been trapped with that thing for too long. It deserved to die." Of course Basil wanted it dead. It's been here living prison for a while and I just helped her break out of jail, then I blew it up but that's extreme.

Unknown location- Leon Kennedy

I switched out of the damn Umbrella body-armor fancy suit and back into my normal clothes. A greenish leather jacket, black shirt, blue jeans, that's it. I stopped in the middle of the cat-walk and watched as a load of scientist scrambled around for their notes and other difficult things. They always get this way when we find one of them.

I leaned on the rail and continued to enjoy their stupid panic. It's the same thing every time, they review the recording of the mission, and then evaluate their progression with their abilities. This was a special occasion, one of them actually demonstrated a core ability. The increase in physical ability, more specifically, when that kid dodged my bullet. He couldn't be one of them, he was just a kid.

"If only you let me send my actual team, he'd be here right now instead of that video." I said annoyed. This bitch behind me is the head of research, which also makes her head of security. I glanced back at her and she was nothing special.

A lab coat that went down to her ankles, black hair tied up in a bun. Her glasses were the small and used for reading even though she keeps them on all the time. She's hot, hell yeah, but a real bitch.

"Your actual team, you mean the cybernetic soldiers that you created to hunt and kill infected Akrid. We want them alive Leon, when one dies, the project goes to hell." She had that snobby tone in her voice, damn I hate her.

"The whole project is already in hell, Gabriel senses Raphael. They are going to have a showdown and Raphael isn't advanced enough to survive." I smiled hearing her slight gasp. She didn't think I knew about that part.

"What are you talking about?" Now she's trying to cover it up.

"I'm the one out there chasing Angels which were your project. I think I should know that when I'm hunting one, your fucking weapon of mass destruction is right behind me on my trail." I shouted and punched the rail denting it.

"It was none of your concern and not my business to tell."

"If you'd let me pilot the Tyrant, I'd have them all in no time." The Tyrant, half VS, half artificially created Akrid, one machine needing me as a pilot.

"I want them alive and in prime condition Leon. The Tyrant was developed as a prototype and it turned out more successful than planned." She walked down the stairs and began barking orders at the idiots below. All book smarts but no common sense.

"Bitch."


	6. Return of NEVEC

"Don't fucking tell me that that you didn't know. Your the employer, manager, organizer, and President of the company. You should now everything that's going on." I shouted punching Vermillion's desk. He sat back in his seat, relaxed, probably waiting for me to chill out. But I still have to vent a little more so it will take a while.

"I didn't know that NEVEC was going to be there. If I did, you would've got back-up from another group." He said in the professional business voice. He acted so calm even though things were so wrong. Thunder rolled his eyes and got into the conversation, he worked solo and got missions from his personal connections. But he was famous enough to be recognized by William.

"Don't tell us that you don't know. I saw at the Green-eye grave that it was their plan to ambush him there. And it wasn't even NEVEC, another group called Umbrella showed up, who are they?" Apparently he was just as annoyed as I was. It was me and him, Violet left to Joe's place and was hanging out with Luca. Leaving us to handle this.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but I don't know what happened. I apologize for what happened to Trio, or any other complications. But I honestly have no idea of what's going on, I'll look into it." He answered with a worried look on his face. It showed up around the time Thunder mentioned Umbrella.

It was obvious we weren't going to get any answers from this guy. That shot down one of the leads I had, there were two more. Z, and the Grave, I'll check Z last, being around him was difficult. Leaving the Grave as our next target. William waved his hand as a signal to leave, lucky him Thunder decided to listen.

"Fuck this." He said turning around and walking out of the door. Hunter opened the door to see what was going on inside, but was almost pushed out of the way by Thunder. The brat stood and stared as a famous hunter just shoved him aside.

"Listen., Riax, I'm honestly sorry about what happened. If what you said was true, we'll look for Trio, but until then, keep Basil safe and do what you can." William finished before pulling out a load of papers. I might've taken my anger out on him a little too much, but I'll say sorry later.

"Aw, what happened. Little Riax can't handle a big mission." Hunter said insulting me. But this time, William didn't have the time to respond before I took action.

A quick twist and rise of the arm and the entire issue was over. I punched Hunter once, as hard as I could and he flew back out of the door and slid across the floor. With rage in his eyes, he looked up at me pulling out his revolver. But by that time, I drew the sword I hid under my coat and raised it to his neck, holding a magnum pistol in my left.

In a moment, every hunter and security guard drew their guns and pointed at each other. Every one was armed and was trained to be on edge, the click of a gun being loaded was enough to start a shoot-out. The security guards were aiming at us, but the hunters had the sights on them. It was silent, no one was willing to speak out of fear of being the new target.

"Every one, lower your weapons before I have them all confiscated." William said from within his office. He didn't even glance at what was happening, just by the strange silence afterwards was he able to tell that guns were out. "Hunter, come here. Now." He demanded.

I twisted the handle on the sword and charged up a quick jolt of electricity. Enough to shoot forward and leave a burn mark on Hunter's cheek, before I walked out. He cursed at me before standing up and pacing over to his dad.

With a small grin, I turned down the hall and walked outside to see Thunder watching the clouds. Ignoring the evil glances I got, or the looks people gave me when they were scared. I simply left the building, knowing that sooner or later we're going to start blasting things.

"So, this place was shit. Where are we going next?" He asked, the annoyance in his voice was obvious. But I know how he feels, who wouldn't be pissed off after losing a lead. I waited for a second considering my options.

"Green eye, you already checked out the place once. So we'll just have to look for anything else." I honestly have no clue for what I'm looking for here. It might be something that'll give us some answers, or we may just find another question.

"So, what exactly are we looking for?" God damn it, I just asked myself the same question. Kind of leaves me with the problem of figuring up an answer, so I used something general.

"Answers, we'll need to get into their system and hack it. I'll leave that up to Violet, we should look for something else, anything that gives a few answers to who Umbrella is." That was actually a really good answer I thought up with. It was a spur of the moment thing, but it made me feel like I had a goal also.

"What's wrong with Z." Thunder asked wondering why we didn't follow the lead that was barely a mile away. I wasn't sure how the old psycho would react, so I told Violet not to report to him.

"The old fucker is annoying, we really can't deal with him now."

"Whatever, this is your adventure kid. I'm just tagging along for the action." I could live with that, a little action never hurt anybody. OK, that wasn't true, action hurt a lot of people. "I'm heading back to the apartment."

"We're leaving tomorrow, remember that." I said but then something made me wonder. How am I, a teenager, giving Thunder, an adult, orders. I know he was tagging along like he said, but it makes me wonder why I'm the one that things a centering themselves around.

I may enjoy a little attention now and then, like the rest of the world. But when it comes down to people looking to you for orders, even though they are better fit to lead. It begins to make you wonder what makes you special. It could've been the dreams, or even the little adrenaline rushes I had, maybe the Angel thing Trio said was true.

Fuck, I also have to find Trio, or kill him, whichever comes first. I'm starting to wonder if this was just an average day as a Hunter, maybe I didn't get the memo about the big mystery that we have to solve. Now I'm just being stupid.

As soon as Thunder left, I began to walk the other direction with my head low. Too many things were going on, and only thing I'm doing is sitting back and complaining. I need to tell my self to shut the fuck up and get this stuff done.

"Damn it, I'm going crazy." I said out loud not expecting a response. But that is exactly what I got.

"You've always been crazy." Of all the things Violet could've heard. She decided to come up behind me and hear that. It just made my day a shit-load better.

"I get paid to do crazy things. Besides that, why are you out here?" I asked wanting to know if she had a good reason to come outside. The last time I saw Violet, she was sitting in her room silently thinking. I decided it was good to leave her alone and came down to see William.

"I was looking for you, obviously. I saw Thunder on the way here and he looked mad, what happened with Will." She asked walking next to me. I got that curious look she gives every time I go to see William.

"Doesn't know anything." I said in a sarcastic tone, obviously I didn't believe him. It wasn't the first time I was ambushed on a job, but it was the first time he accepted an anonymous job from an unreliable source.

"So we're leaving to Green eye tomorrow." She asked, her voice lowering. It was really hurting me inside constantly having to ruin her day, constantly. It's one of those things that you can stop, but you know that if you do, the situation will only get worse.

"Yeah, Thunder said it was an Umbrella facility. It's our best bet, so what were you looking for me for?" I'm trying to change the subject, this was a really depressing topic that we were on at the moment.

Paradise Solo - Devil Thunder

Everything is going down hill, and its making my job even harder. I can't do all of this alone, one single Angel is strong but not enough. But it left me with a problem, Riax was young and that meant it'd take longer for anything to start up.

I leaned back in the chair and examined the ceiling, a sudden fit of rage came over me and I dealt a quick blow to the desk next to me. Using an Angel ability, my body released concentrated energy creating a type of shockwave effect. The result was a wooden table snapping in half then exploding sending splinters of wood every where.

"Michael, the Devil Thunder." I said stating the title I was given. First was my Angelic name, second was the name I told everyone else.

That was all I knew, everything else I couldn't remember. Umbrella has been hunting me for god knows how long, simply because I have freedom. They've learned to fear freedom, the Angels were too valuable to let go and their power made sure they stood ahead in life.

"Heh, Gabriel." The most powerful of all of us Angels. He was the first to escape from Umbrella, and the one to cause worldwide damage. I've only seen him once, and he made killing my entire team seem like he was squishing a bug.

I didn't want to take the chance that I was going to see him again, that one time was enough. But with all the information I've gained, I learned that there is one other Angel strong enough to beat him. But the info left off there, it gave no specifics on who or where they are, I don't even know if that Angel is still alive.

I began to wonder and think about things, like life and why we're here and all. That emotional existence stuff, not something I usually even think about. But it was as if that was something I wasn't supposed to do. Because exactly as I felt like I was getting close to an answer, there was a massive explosion.

The building I stood in began to crumble rapidly and tip, it wasn't a feeling I enjoyed. Flames erupted from the windows in the floors below and judging by the screaming, the fire was spreading. I'm no superhero, but I am a super-human, so I can save my own ass, not too sure about anyone else.

I looked out the window towards my exit, and in the distance was a NEVEC Aerial type VS. To describe it simply, an attack chopper with the engines of a jet plane. I couldn't understand why NEVEC would attack Paradise Solo. All of them are controlled by independent governments and keep between each other, some may have sided with NEVEC or others but a direct attack was forbidden.

In that split second it took for me to comprehend that entire thought, the copter fired two additional rockets upon the building. They looked like two flaming, spiraling arrows of death, but there was one thing I noticed that no one else would. It's not because I was an angel and all, but it's something that you just happen to notice.

Those missiles were coming directly towards me, like they were aimed at me specifically. Now, some people would call me self-centered for saying that, but honestly. If you wanted these two bombs aiming at you, I'd gladly let you have them. But seeing as how you weren't standing next to me, that wasn't possible so I improvised.

"Fuck!" I grumbled before taking a dash towards the window. I unleashed the power that was forced into me and it seemed like time began to slow down. Truth was, I'm just moving a lot faster than most people thought was possible for human beings. I raised a single weapon and pressed down on the pressure trigger.

It came out like a loud traditional Japanese drum, a thud that caused your organs to vibrate. But the blast that came out was a ball of compressed sound, the result of that was a massive hole in the wall. I took a leap, from god knows how far up. Actually, I never thought I'd have to use these again but they do come in handy when needed.

Riax didn't know it, and no one else did either. It was something that I didn't like to show off unless I had to, but the Young Evil was learning. He did it once, and I had to do it now. From the people on the ground looking up, it was like the dark blue night sky was lit with red.

Like every other Angel, my blood created an enhanced kind of T-eng. That was the fuel to most of our powers, like the burning wings. Two massive flames erupted from my shoulder blades and I was able to control them like engines. occasionally having to flap them like actual wings to build up more speed.

Massive bullets soared past me and tore apart the buildings they managed to hit. As expected, those bastards were aiming at me. I haven't done anything to NEVEC...

That's not true. I've done a lot.

But not enough to get attacked in the middle of a Paradise, this is extreme and taking whatever happened too far. Miles in the air, I could still hear the screams of the people on the ground as bullets and a massive building rained down. I had to take out that VS, but getting shot wasn't an option.

The entire thing was covered by a thick armor of something, but its most likely strong. I flew threw the air keeping my body straight and only moving to provide support for sharp turns. The bullets flew around me as I dived directly downwards and took a sharp left turn.

It didn't take long for me to be directly under the copter, and it took less time for me to fly under it. Grabbing on to the landing bars and pulling out my Concussion Rifle. With a loud crash, I blew the Chain gun off of the copter and pushed off putting a small amount of space between us. I didn't care who was in there or why they did it at the moment, but they had to go.

With one more shot, I hit the small gap in the armor that connected the main hold to the blades. While the twirling blades flew away like a boomerang, I took one more shot blew off one of the engines. I was expecting the entire thing to suddenly explode like they do in the movies but instead it went crashing to the ground. I can't save everybody so I didn't try to stop it.

"Riax, where the fuck are you." I shouted into the com-link waiting for a response. It wasn't the voice I was expecting, but Basil will have to do for now.

"We...fire...NEVEC...Get to trailer now." I think I got the important part of the message. With a quick glance towards the ground, I saw the entire area was peaceful. But flashing lights and explosions came from one specific spot, most likely where the others were.

I thought the worst was over, until I felt it in the distance. a snowstorm was heading our direction, but it wasn't natural. Gabriel's power exceeded all of ours, it was to the point where his presence caused a shift in the environment. The reason for the strange magnetic snowstorm that followed him and blocked all sorts of radar.

"Shit, it's too early. I'll be there" In all honesty, I was hoping Riax would be able to help me out if we ever came across him again. But without his abilities, he's useless.

Paradise Solo - Trailer Bay - Riax

I can't shake this damn feeling that we're in for some deep shit. It's like that feeling that someone's watching you, but instead its like you know there's a sniper pointing at your head with a VS rifle loaded with missiles. One of those, 'oh fuck we're all screwed' feelings. But when you have NEVEC blowing lead everywhere and things like that. You don't want that feeling all too much.

"This is pissing me the fuck off!" I shouted as I leaned back against a wall. NEVEC easily had us outdone in quantity, but we were quality fighters. Or I was a quality fighter at least, the others are inside the Trailer trying to figure out what's going on.

"Riax, Thunder's coming, hold them off for a little while longer." Basil said. Honestly, you'd think holding them off was an easy task, but when their only goal is moving forward. It was a lot harder than expected.

All citizens have been moved away from the battle zone by the local security, even though they were no match against NEVEC, they had their uses. NEVEC put this battle in a place where it didn't belong, and without a warning.

"Riax, need help?" A familiar robotic voice sad through the com-link. Y'know, I've completely forgotten that Seraph can perform on his own without a pilot. It's one of those luxuries your prefer not to enjoy, but I need it. Now. But before I could say anything, Thunder ruined my chance to spray all the NEVEC bitches, that's funny.

"No time, we have to leave now."


	7. Learning to Fight

(A short chapter, something of a teaser to say A Cold Hell, is back in Progress.)

It was kind of surreal, if that's the right word. I know it happened, I straight up saw and took part of the event, but it still didn't sound possible. Things were already crazy, but there's always that tie an anchor to your leg, then push you down.

We escaped Paradise Solo with NEVEC's hands around our necks and a gun at our heads. At first I thought it was Umbrella, judging by their skill, but Thunder filled me in that it was NEVEC's special VS unit. I wasn't sure what he meant by that, until I was forced to go out in Seraph and take out a few VS that were trailing behind us. Heh, it was a little more difficult than I thought it'd be.

Thunder was on edge the entire time, checking scanners and glancing out of windows. I thought it was nothing honestly, just him being a little paranoid. Violet sprained her ankle somehow, that didn't help so Basil had to do all the technical work. Surprise, she used to be in NEVEC or fight against them, something like that.

I was still taking down an aerial VS when it all started to happen, the weird shit Thunder told me to get used to. The normal clear blue sky started to turn a darker gray with hints of purple and red. Lighting arched through the air and struck the ground around me like I was nature's freaking target. Too bad for the aerial pilot, a lightning bolt went straight into his VS and a few others around me, fried them to hell.

Seraph began to pick up a weird power signal in the distance, it was FUCKING HUGE. When I checked the scanner, I had two thoughts. It was the end of the world, or a VS/Akrid the size of a mountain. But when Seraph got a visual, I saw a single person later to be named Gabriel.

First of all, we were in a 'electro-magnetic lightning blizzard' that blocked all sensors and the temperature reached a new low for E.D.N III and this guy was wearing no shirt. His entire top half was exposed except for a black helmet around his head and the brown hair hanging in the back. He wore these ripped up massive white pants that looked more like the bottom of a traditional Japanese samurai outfit. Last but definitely not least, was the six burning wings on his back. Now at this moment, I'm thinking "What the fuck".

That's when Thunder decides to go T-freaking-Rex and starts roaring in the headset for me to get out of there. Now, if anyone has ever seen a hero freak out and panic, you know to freak out along with them. So I did the smart thing and took my ass back to the trailer. But as I was retreating, the thought of turning my back to him seemed like a bad idea. So I moved backwards and laid out as much lead in the chain guns as possible.

This is what I was talking about in the beginning. Out of those countless bullets I fired, almost all of them missed and the few that hit stopped like a rock being thrown at a brick wall. I couldn't comprehend the amount of snow powder that rose up around him because of the impossible chance of how many missed. I saw a bullet hit him directly on the dead-center of his helmet, and not a single movement.

He didn't even attempt to attack us, but just his simple presence shook me to my core. It felt like shooting at God, nothing will happen, and it just makes you think if winning is possible. As I boarded the trailer and Basil put the entire thing on max so we got away from him quickly, I felt him watching us. I could feel his eyes piercing into my soul through the metal trailer, it was a feeling that was going to drive me insane.

"Riax, we gotta talk and there's no point in asking what it's about." Thunder brought me back to my senses as I laid in bed in the nightmare.

"What is that, an Akrid? Was he an Angel?" I still had doubts about my self being an Angel, but if that was the power of one. It felt like these Angel's were pure bred demons.

"He is the same as you, me, and the other four. An Angel, weapons created by Umbrella, there's no secret to it and your going to have to accept that." It was like meeting a new side to Thunder, the look he was giving me didn't tick me off. It was like he saw something and knew I had to see it too or game over.

"I'm not like you, I can't control my power. You might, but I can barely control the small amount I already have." Shit, I feel like a wimp crying to his dad for help...

"Your an Angel, Riax. If you don't learn to control your strength and manage it, sooner or later it will kill you and those around you." I already knew that, I saw what happened when it took over. Shotgun plus Trio's arm equals a screaming Violet.

"How am I supposed to do that? You saw him, the storm, those wings, I can't compare to that." It starting to piss me off how Gabriel caused so much panic by simply walking miles within miles of us. I was paid to hunt Akrid, Gabriel could level a Paradise on his own and that's out of my league.

I didn't see it coming, not even expected. But it came at me like a flash, a low humming noise came from Thunder's hand and when he snapped his fingers. It was like a punch directly to the gut, the same effect his gun produced. A weapon of pure sound. The pressure lifted me off the ground and flying backwards and in that short time, I realized something.

Thunder was an Angel, and it all registered in my head like I already knew it. He was Michael, the Angel of Sound. But something just didn't comprehend in me, the name Raphael. It just seemed so wrong, like that wasn't me or it belonged to some one else. But that left when I dropped to the ground holding my stomach. I whipped out a magnum and pointed it, but that same rush I felt occasionally was being used against me.

Thunder appeared in front of me and grabbed my collar, it took a second for me to catch on. But right after that he tossed me out of the window and I rolled against the ground. Now I knew something was wrong, Michael, I mean, Thunder wouldn't up and attack me for no reason. So I had to figure out why, but at the rate he was moving, talking wouldn't help and I just dropped the only gun on me.

"Fight me!" Thunder ran up to me and punched his hand in the snow before me. The humming noise shook the ground and tossed me threw the air like a fucking rag doll. I had to fight back, I wasn't a hand-to-hand combat specialist, but I could do some fancy martial arts.

I flipped backwards and placed one knee on the ground as Thunder used his previous momentum to press forward. His left hand came towards my chest and with a simple lean to my right it missed. Using his own weight against him, I grabbed his arm and performed a perfect toss. As his feet left the ground, the same rush came over me.

Once I let go of his arm, I jumped into the air and plunged the heel of my left foot into his ribs. Before he even moved from the impact, his hands gripped my ankle and in mid-air, he spun around slamming me into the snow. As soft as snow is supposed to be, it still hurt. I heard that low humming from before and rolled forward as Thunder put a dent in the ground.

"I'm a little confused as to why we're fighting, but okay." I joked. A small hint of a laugh came from Thunder before he smashed his fists together sending a shockwave in my direction. I don't know what came over me, but with a raised hand, I created something of a field myself.

"We're a project made by Umbrella, everything we can do is the combination between Akrid, Man, and Artificial genetics. In our genes is the Sin-Virus, but NEVEC attacked Umbrella and stole it from them. They tried to use it as a weapon against the Akrid, but it mutated the ones that were affected. That monster Eve was a side-project." Thunder said to me. It was like a slap to the face hearing all this, every new secret was just another slap. That power from being an Angel still surged through me, I felt Thunder, I could sense the Angel Michael in him.

I heard Violet yelling at us, asking what the hell we thought we were doing. I feel bad about dragging her through all of this, but I kind of need her around actually. The trailer stopped completely and I was pretty sure we now had an audience watching us. It was a beautiful day, since we escaped from Gabriel the weather was perfect, still cold though.

"And even then, there's more of us. As far as I know, there's only me, you, and Gabriel. But there's more, so you have to learn how to be an Angel, I can't tell you that all of them will be willing to help us." Thunder said and instantly he blew a shockwave into the ground sending snow everywhere. He used the snow as cover and all I saw was a fist separating the snow before it flew past my head.

I had to learn quickly, he wasn't holding back. I knew that I had to push myself to the limit to find how far I could go with this power. With that, I felt lighter but at the same time, stronger. I was confident about how quick I could move, so I pushed forward trying to get a hit on Thunder. But I felt a burst of sound almost snap my eardrums and flung me about ten-feet back.

"You also have to know of our weaknesses, the more of our power we use, the higher chance we'll attract Akrid of all sizes." Now why was he using his power so often then, was the question I wanted to ask him. "We are weapons." A living weapon, I can live with that.

It was sudden, but inside, I felt it all over again. I was getting used to it, this surge that went through my veins. I saw the look in Thunder's eyes as I brought myself to my feet, he could sense me, my power. With one hand raised toward me, the snow split apart and scattered as a wall of sound came my direction.

With my own hand raised, I felt the impact of the attack against my palm. I could feel its pressure forming ripples in my skin, but with that, I tightened my fist and dispersed it. A heavy breeze blew past me, lifting the ends of my coat into the air. I looked and felt badass.

"You control sound, that's your power." I knew this all along, but know that I had an understanding of it, I felt like I could defeat it. "What can I do?" I asked with my fist still in his direction.

"Find out, use it." Thunder said making it sound simple. It was kind of funny, it actually was really easy because if felt natural. I didn't even notice at first, but when Thunder tilted his head and his jaw gaped open, I knew to look.

My arm was on fire...

My arm was on fucking fire...

and it didn't burn.


End file.
